Okay, so we start with a win. After allowing a goal even before feeling the grass, we just continued from where we left last season by knocking off the opponent with a couple to late strikes. How much ever Jose says about his indifference towards the result of this match, I’m sure he’s got this good feeling that we have won the first game of the season. To start with a loss could be kind of disappointing even if it has no consequence at all. That’s human psyche.


malouda_clubamerica.jpg I know [tag]Malouda[/tag] is a good player but I’m not going to jump on my couch that he scored. There was also a certain expensive striker who scored on his debut last season but could not sustain his initial success. So, it’s good that Malouda scored and it should certainly help his confidence and wipe away some adaptation worries. I put his name on the title of this post but that doesnt mean I’m going to increase my expectations by a single strike. Malouda should think that he had a dream start. Playing only in the second half he was instrumental in both the goals, of course scoring one of them.

sheva_clubamerica.jpgWe started with [tag]Chelsea[/tag] Cech, Johnson, Ben Haim, [tag]Terry[/tag], Cork, Makelele, Sidwell, Lampard, J Cole, [tag]Shevchenko[/tag] and [tag]Robben[/tag]. Jose wanted everyone to feel the ball and hence made 9 subsitiutions at halftime. Therefore, in the second half we had Cudicini, Johnson until 76 mins, Sinclair from 76th minute, Carvalho, Terry, Hutchinson, Essien, Diarra, Wright-Phillips, Malouda, Drogba and Kalou. Only player who remained throughout the 90 minutes was John Terry who scored a long overdue goal which tourned out to be the winner. Sheva is back after his surgery and looks very strong and determined. As you could see, Pizarro could not join us as he needed more rest after his participation in the Copa America.

[video]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/3xBdWGwwufOQ5hVrq[/video]

[tag]Club America[/tag] is a good team and in fact, the best in football-crazy Mexico. If you can remember, they were the team Barca beat in the finals of the Club World Cup, or whatever they call it, in 05/06. Still, we can’t make much of this match’s performance but what we take from this match is that at least everyone played and we came out with a win. Now it’s kind of certain that we are reverting to my beloved 4-3-3 for sure. This week, [tag]Jose Mourinho[/tag] said this to convey Malouda is not a replacement for anyone (read Robben):

In my opinion, the best football we have played in the last three years was when Robben and [Damien] Duff were playing together in the same team, so why can’t Robben and Florent play together?

Looks like my prayers have been answered!

There are some curious names there whose performance we would be interested in – Cork, Hutchinson, Sinclair and a bunch of new signings too. I obviously cannot comment about how they played, as I never got to see the match myself. If you want to know these guys played, you can find it here.

Jose is very happy about how the match went. Here is what he had to say about the match, the opposition, Malouda, new kid Jack Cork and our strategy for the match:

I am pleased globally. It was a very good training session. First of all I want to thank Club América because they gave us exactly what we needed – competition but competition with quality, competition with aggression but with fair play. We played a good game – good passing, good movement, not yet sharpness but you could see some movements we have worked on and some dynamic we need. If we play a pre-season friendly in the States and Club América is the opposition, I will be very happy with that.

Malouda did well. In the last period of the game I played him in an inside position to play the kid Sinclair wide on the left and he also showed that he has understanding of that position. We played with four wingers, two in each half and we also played with Shaun [Wright-Phillips] inside. Every time he plays inside with us, he plays very, very well because he makes winger’s runs but instead of in wide positions, in central positions. That gives us something else in the game.When a team has so many good wingers and they produce, and we don’t have injuries, we have to play with them.

We played him with caution but he did well, no mistakes and a good enough understanding with John. Jack Cork played left-back at the start because Bridge will be out for a long time and we are without Ashley Cole for a few more weeks. Ben-Haim is my first option for left-back and I want to give him some games there in the next few weeks. He is player I can trust. We were able to play with two teams today and that was without Ballack, Bridge, Ashley Cole, Mikel, Ferreira and Pizarro. With all those players we will have a very strong squad.

The big news is not Chelsea winning their first match of the season. Jose Mourinho has opened up his mind on various matters in a long interview. We will discuss about it in the next post. Stay tuned to BlueChampions.