Friendlies, Pre-season - Written by BlueChampion on Monday, July 23, 2007 11:10 | 1,905 Views | 28 Comments | Add Comment
Why Did Chelsea Tour The USA For Friendlies?
If you wondered why Chelsea flew to the USA for a (world!) series of friendlies, Blue Winner has the answers. No, the answer is not that they can party in the hollywood with Paris Hilton and other babes. Blue Winner makes end to end review of Chelsea’s US tour without talking too much what we already discussed here, here and here. He says that, while a tour of USA would help the team in the short run, it surely would help the club in the long run. Read on.
Well Chelsea is making the usual pre-season tour and this year they have returned to the football hotbed of… the United States. I am sure that you, as well as I, spent some time pondering why the Blues did not host a set of games, or perhaps tour the continent, rather than trekking to California to participate in all things Beckham. Well, it actually makes sense when explained the way the club did. Just prepare for some more riders to the bandwagon.
Publicity
To begin with, Chelsea signed a contract with Disney that will ensure that Chelsea is the main football sponsor of the Disney Wide World of Sports and will be the presenting sponsor of the Disney Soccer Showcase Series. In short, this means the club will be out front for everything that Disney, perhaps the largest purveyor of media in the world, will do that involves football. This will make Chelsea, for better or worse, the face of football in the United States.
More than the contract with Disney, the publicity from Beckhammania is a huge boon to the Chelsea Football Club. 86% of fans of the Northern California club listed Chelsea as the game they most anticipated this summer. The first nationally televised game of Beckham’s stint in America will be the feature against Chelsea. ESPN, the major sports carrier in the United States, has requested cameras for pregame coverage and is devoting no fewer than four separate television channels to the event. Coverage for the meaningless game will begin three hours before kickoff. In the midst of this media frenzy will be Chelsea, reaping a huge publicity harvest for little more than the normal pregame stretching. This kind of exposure simply cannot be bought. It required no stretch of the imagination to see Jose Mourinho creating some sort of spectacle to capture the attention of the cameras. You could have almost counted on it. Sadly, none of them seem to have been on hand for his hamstring tearing save in the Backroom Staff’s match against the British Press XI.
Money
Roman Abramovich did not make it to this point in his life by not wringing every possible credit out of every moment. This American tour, really just a one city stop, is no exception. It can be readily assumed that Chelsea will be receiving part of the gate from the games played in the States. Attendance has been running near 18,000 but the game between Chelsea and the LA Galaxy (don’t ask me, I didn’t name them) is a sellout, promising nearly 30,000 supporters in the seats. While it is something short of the crowds that accompany a European match, there will be no shortage of money spent or added to the Chelsea coffers.
Another major cash influx will come from Chelsea fans who want to see the games. The only method of viewing the games will come from the Chelsea owned Chelsea TV. Even supporters with Sky Sports must already own the channel or purchase it to watch the Blues in action. Even online radio coverage will cost loyal followers a few hard earned pounds before they get to hear the match. All of this will also bring in money that Chelsea would otherwise miss. The Disney deal will also bring in a good deal of money. Chelsea will certainly make some bank from a trip that will be a tune up for the season. Is the money a major reason? Probably not, but it won’t hurt.
Competition
Yes, you read that correctly, Chelsea is traveling to the USA to play good competition. Club America lost to FC Barcelona in the 2005 Club World Cup and features a lineup that is not worthy of being scoffed. As seen in the match, Club America was hardly a simple win for the Blues. To be sure, a consistent XI could probably have handled the match with some more ease but the dispatching of Club America was surely more difficult than the average fixture against Nottingham Forest.
Next came the Suwon Bluewings, wearing a kit that caused more than a bit of confusion upon first coming across the game. Suwon, or Samsung, packed in the defence and forced Chelsea to play an attacking style of football that some had clamored for all last year. Playing down to a team that lacked quality would not have forced CFC to come out of the back third of the field and attack with some vigor. It was something special to see and definitely and encouragement to most supporters. Such are the benefits of playing the occasionally difficult pre-season match. Suwon was something less than a force going forward but the Brazilian Eduardo provided a few efforts that at least gave Petr Cech something to deflect.
LA Galaxy is something of an enigma. The addition of David Beckham will not hurt the team but one must wonder about the quality of the players around him. Continental washout Landon Donovan recently became the all time point scorer in USA history but failed to show much in his time in the leagues of Europe. The blonde mane of Abel Xavier was also be on display as the Boro reject has landed nearly 5000 miles away and on an MLS team. Despite the lack of top flight competition (even Beckham can no longer be considered one of the top 50 footballers in the world) the attention will be something like the scrutiny that Chelsea will face all season long.
Another reason that the difficulty of competition is important to Chelsea is that it enables Mourinho to see what his options were in the attack. A calendar that included games against truly miserable sides would have turned every Chelsea player into Zola. The respectable level of talent gave JM the chance to see how Malouda is drifting in off the wing, how Malouda and Robben mesh, if Sheva and Drogba were more inclined to work together and if Kalou would ever show that some of that fantastic potential that has made him so attractive to everyone.
And so, despite the fact that the USA seems like the most unlikely of places for a “soccer” tour, it will actually pan out well in the end for Chelsea.
This article was contributed by Blue Winner
28 Comments
1. Giridhar
2. University Update - Paris Hilton - Why Did Chelsea Tour The USA For Friendlies?
[...] Efron Link to Article paris hilton Why Did Chelsea Tour The USA For Friendlies? » Posted at Blue [...]
3. olandrus
I think for the business point of view, the North American holds goodprospect for Chelsea. And sharing the limelight in the “Beckham hype” is no lest a better to go about it!
4. The real reason behind Chelsea’s US trip | Soccerlens - Football News Blog
[...] Why did Chelsea tour the US for friendlies? [...]
5. Danski Blue
olandrus your right we have made a clever decision to jump on the Beckham bandwagon and our status comercially at least will have rocketed! for a country at the beggining of its football (not bloody SOCCER) revolution our tour has made our name just as big as ManUre!
this is sure to bring in cash and investment from larger american companies and could also see a few more english clubs being bought up by american Tycoons…lets hope not to many tho!!!
6. Danski Blue
when i say “just as big as ManUre” i mean purely in the USA i mean ManUre are a HUGE name in the far east something that will take years if not decades to emulate!
7. joeblue
hey nihongo , we r all blues in the end and thats wat matters , after all ours is a small society , unlike the Manures and we hav to work really hard to increase it , and true blues like u r wat we need!!!! Cheers mate!!!!
i thought the idea of goin’ to the US was purely for buisness , as CFC hav decided to base themselves there , which aint such a bad idea since its a country without any club prefrence and wid a lot of money!!! but the problem is that they already hav so many of their own sports like baseball , Rugby and the NBA so football is juat another sport nothin special!!!
Another thing that comes to my mind is that why r we still playing that conservative game , why only a goal difference of 3 in 3 games??? those teams shld be ripped apart by our 2 strings , how i envy Manure , there they go again a 4-0 thrashing of some poor team , the signs are not ominous ,JM has not learned a shit from last season , if we play like this in friendlies , i m scared to see wat he will put out for the EPL , but i wont be surprised if we stil play the same garbage ,pass around in our own half , sneak in a goal , and defend like a team in relegation for the last minutes , JM , u really , and completely suck and until this arrogant man leaves there is no way in hell we can play good football!!!
8. Cashif
Ehave got to change the way we play if we really want to ‘emulate’ the sucess of united and Barca off the pitch.
Thankfully, that looks like happening this season.
9. BrizzyBlue
Hey fellas…
G’day from the Queensland Chelsea Supporters Club from land down Under (Australia)!
Just had a look at your Blog and it’s great!
Take a look at ours on
http://cfc-brisbane.blogspot.com
A group of us sat at our meeting venue and watched the game live in Australia. in fact it’s just brilliant to watch a live game with Chelsea in it, considering Australia is Cesspol mad because of Harry Fool (Kewell) and old Craig Johnstone. In fact it drives us bloody crazy all this Cesspool this and Cesspool that!
We formed last year and have been notified we are the 69th Chelsea supporters club in the world, so any time any of your readers come to Australia, they should give us a call as we have supporters clubs in Sydney and Perth. They will be able to catch up with our members and watch games and have a beer while disscussing our favourite subject…CHELSEA FC.
Drop us a line on our web site
Keeping the blue flag flying high in OZ…..
BrizzyBlue
10. BrizzyBlue
Fellas…
on our OZ blog we are running a Fantasy league comp…via the Premier League site… join us as we have startedthe league for Chelsea Supporters to have some fun and it’s FREE so come along play and meet new Chelsea Supporters from around the world.
Carefree from OZ
BrizzyBlue
11. BlueBlood58
When this tour was arranged Beckham wasnt going anywhere except for out of the England team and a very long stint in Madrid’s reserves. Just goes to show how a year can change things. Some good and valid points made but dont forget this was Chelsea’s fourth year in North America.
Next year the tour is due to go to Asia - makes sense as Chelsea’s sponsors are from the Asian continent.
This tour has been a success. Three matches, three victories and most importantly no serious injuries (Wayne Bridge took his injury with him and the seriousness of the injury was spotted until he got to UCLA). Robben has a slight knee tweak and Cech has a minor injury to his hand.
I can understand the concerns and frustrations of most of this blog posters - dont get urself all stressed up. It is pre-season. Save it all when the season kicks off in earnest on Sunday 12th August against Birmingham City.
KTBFFH
12. joeblue
i am just gettin so tired of this ‘all talk and no play’ , wen will the time come ,i just wanna see us starting the season by beating the hell outta Manure and showin the league -’the boss is back’!!!!!
Hey BC i think we shld start the preseason analysis of teams and players , which wld be far more interesting and debateable , what say , i cant sit and twiddle my thumbs any longer!!!! 
cheers mates
Joeblue
13. Danski Blue
BRIZZY BULE GREAT IDEA BUT WHATS THE LINK TO SIGN UP???
14. Adonis
Joeblue, I sure hope this season isn’t like the last with our goal difference stat… Remember last season, Manure started with a 5-1 win and never looked back. We should do the same, and I think you’re getting angry a little too quickly. I think when we have a stable team (only 3 subs) and a bit more emphasis on playing well, we’ll start converting more of our chances. Remember, each game we played we were very wasteful of our opportunities, especially Kalou vs LA Galaxy… So what I’m saying is there are more signs for change than for staying the same!!
And good idea about team/player analysis. I’m ready!
I liked Sheva’s game a lot more this preseason, he played urgently and with purpose, and my man of the preseason is of course Essien. He didn’t make a mistake the whole three games and is still as solid as ever.
I guess for him just like us, it’s in the blood.
15. abdullah
The only point i would like to say is goal scoring. I saw manchester united’s game today against some chinese team which they easily demolished 6-0. Now as for chelsea our games are dull, lack the great amount of goals we were used to, and I am SICK of winning games by a one goal margin!!!! I mean we are still winning but we need to start winning at another level. I am not just saying this to critisize chelsea’s current state but only because chelsea are potentionally capable of so much more, as they have shown us in the previous campaign’s where they were crowned premiership champions. To win the premiership now is more difficult than previous, as now there is more competition. United have the attacking mentality engraved in their style of play which is something i see chelsea have lost last season. Let’s hope we get our flare back, keep on winning, and SCREW manchester. Blue4lyfe
16. Maysam
publicity : Probably.
Money : They can make more money if they go other countries , specially Asian countries.
Competition: Come On! absolutly not.
I think they come to the U.S.A becasue there are more joash
in america in comparison to other countries. and as u know most of people who are connected to Chelsea(work) are joash. it is just a guess but it makes sense. Specially after signing Ben Hiem, joesh people attracted to chelsea.
u know when I went to watch chelsea training most of fans were joesh kids who wore Ben Hiem and Ben Sahar shirt. I was shocked when I saw people wearing Sahar shirt.
well, joesh people are rich , they can be good for chelsea.
17. Tore Andre's Flow
hahaha Joesh??? You mean Jewish.
Anyway, one doubts money is a factor. The club should be commended for leveraging technology and broadcasting the game online for next to nothing. I paid 4 ‘hard earned’ quid for a month of CTV online and six preseason games, which works out to less than a pound per game! Assuming a few thousand signed up (no figures from the club) they are providing the service at cost - just enough raked in to set up the feed, servers, and talking heads in the studio.
And that’s fine. Because they are at once providing a service to people who have no other way of watching the games, and at the same time increasing access to the club - costless exposure, as it were.
18. RomanHoliday
This pre-season seems to me the longest I’ve ever known.
19. bluewinner
Ok, not sure the Jewish angle is one worth investigating. I was thinking that the money must have some factor in it but the Chelsea TV price was good. I still think they made just a bit from it and any extra certainly helps. Good point though.
20. RomanHoliday
I predict that
Sheva will come good this season.
Ballack will bore again except for the occasional super-smack at goal. Ben Haim will be so so . Sidwell will get red cards.
Essien will shine like the sun. Jt will slow down a shade. Caravlho will be the rock in defense again. Lamps will drop back more and score less. Robben if he’s still around, will be injured again. Joe Cole will get us a lot of sneaky goals. Ashley will become hot in second part of season. Peter will be invincible, invincible. Drogs will be surrounded by defenders but smack important goals. Pizzarro will be tired for first part of season . Makalele will play important games in CL. SWP will still have to find his footing.Obi-Kenobi will impress us with more smooth moves forward. Kalou will be in Carling games
And Jose will revert back to defensive game 2 times outta three.
And we CFC supporters will bitch like hell whether we lose or win.
21. RomanHoliday
Oh ……….. I forgot …… Malouda’s girl friend will have twins .
Now try impersonating me !
22. Maysam
that’s right , Jewish . I said “I guess “, but I am sure . that’s one reason .
23. Adonis
Roman, how goes it with your boss??
24. Johnarejr
I just hope that next year Chelsea will come to the East Coast and I’ll be able to schedule some vacation time and money to see them live. I still kick myself for missing them in 05 when they came to play DC United, only 120 miles from my home. But, it was on a Thursday night and I had Bible Study at the church.
Roman and JM are doing the right thing by bringing Chelsea over here for the pre-season. Money, fan base, and competition. And each year, these three things keep increasing.
25. RomanHoliday
Adonis
ManUre’s 6 goals against the Chinese team are keeping him off my back at the moment. I keep telling him its a wonderful thing that happened blah blah blah.
26. Mark Coden
Leave out The Jewish crap you arsehole. You know nothing. Come and pay me a visit at The So Bar. Just ask for Mad Mark (I’m Jewish) and what you’ve said is total Bollocks. I’ve been to all of the USA Tours for the last 4 years and I’m not rich and I saw no one with Sahar or Ben Hiam shirts. I’m just Chelsea through and through. See me on Chelseainamerica everyone knows me. You come out with more crap like you just have and me and the boys will pay you a visit. We don’t need ignorant people like you who can’t even spell Jewish so learn English you Tool.
27. Mark Coden
Please feel free to come on this site and just try coming out with that crap Maysam or whatever name you go by you uneducated fool. http://www.chelseainamerica.com/bb
28. Greg McBride
I remember this guy in The USA insulted Mad Mark Coden once and he smashed a bottle of Jagermeister over his face and then gave him a beating like he was Ricky Hatton in Disguise. Johnarejr, Absolutely disgraceful that you would not miss Thursday Night Bible Study to see Chelsea, pathetic mate. The Good Lord would want you to see Chelsea since they play on his green earth!
hmmmm…. 18000 spectators Chelsea could have made more money playing at Stamford Bridge. I am not sure if USofA has a Future in Football that is played with the foot. Chelsea should have looked elsewhere may be Asia or Africa.
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