So our first pre-season match is less than two weeks away. Two!! So here's a thread for all of it. Lots of matches to give the new gaffer a few opportunities to try out some different player combinations. The fixtures are as follows: July 10 vs. Bohemians (Dublin, Republic of Ireland) (Europa League team, 3rd last year) July 13 vs. St. Patrick’s (Dublin, Republic of Ireland) (Not in Europe, 5th last year) July 19 vs. Kawasaki Frontale (Yokohama, Japan) (AFC Champions league, league winners) July 23 vs. Barcelona (Saitama, Japan) (Champions League Team, league winners) July 28 vs. Reading (Reading, England) (not in Europe, 20th in 2nd tier last season, geographically convenient) July 31 vs. RB Salzburg (Salzburg, Austria) (Champions League team, league winners) Aug 3 vs. Borussia Monchengladbach (Monchengladbach, Germany) (Europa League team, 5th last season) First match is in the league at Old Trafford on August 11 closely followed by a trip to Istanbul against the SIX TIME European champion (ZERO TIME Premier League champion), Liverpool.
yep papers are switching from "next 48 hours" til by Friday when they are at Easyjet terminal Dublin bound
Pulisic planning on cutting his summer short to show up for Pre-Season right after the Gold Cup with the National Team. Think he might burn himself out but respect the commitment.
This is the travelling squad to Dublin: GOALKEEPERS: Caballero, Cumming DEFENDERS: Azpilicueta, Zappacosta, Zouma, Ampadu, Sterling, Tomori, Guehi, Maatsen MIDFIELDERS: Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Baker, Palmer, T.Chalobah, Gallagher, Gilmour FORWARDS: Kenedy, Pedro, Batshuayi, Piazon, Ugbo
Not sure if all live, but Chelsea "Video" now free online and on apps "Chelsea TV", and Sky other Nations' versions are a dead parrot but "Chelsea Videos"online and apps apparently referred to as "Chelsea TV" WEDNESDAY, JULY 10 - Bohemians v Chelsea (7.45pm) Chelsea TV (or The 5th stand app) SATURDAY, JULY 13 - St Patrick Athletic v Chelsea (2pm) Chelsea TV (or The 5th stand app) FRIDAY, JULY 19 - Kawasaki Frontale v Chelsea (11am)Chelsea TV (or The 5th stand app) TUESDAY, JULY 23 - Barcelona v Chelsea (11.30pm) Chelsea TV (or The 5th stand app) SUNDAY, JULY 28 - Reading v Chelsea (3pm) Chelsea TV (or The 5th stand app) WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 - RB Salzburg v Chelsea (2pm) Chelsea TV (or The 5th stand app) SATURDAY, AUGUST 3 - Borussia Mochengladback v Chelsea (4pm) Chelsea TV (or The 5th stand app) https://www.chelseafc.com/en/about-chelsea/faqs/chelsea-tv---faqs "Chelsea TV ended as a 24/7 live channel on Sky, and this website, on 30 June 2019. Please see the below FAQs for more details about the changes. "Individual live shows will appear as individual streams on chelseafc.com and our 5th Stand app while all other content will be available on demand. We will still be showing on demand a mix of daily news and features, live matchday shows, highlights, full match replays, select live games and classic matches on our digital platforms at no cost to supporters. To access this content you just need a free Fan Club account, which gives you access to the video clips, you can create one below. CREATE A FREE FAN CLUB ACCOUNT"
Bunch of other players joined today. Jorg, Kante, Kepa, Luiz, Kova, Alonso, Barkley, Giroud, Christensen, Emerson. Not sure when Pulisic is due to join. I bet he's ready to put the Gold Cup final behind him. He did OK. The US (and the manager) blew ass.
i just remember pulisic wasn't planning on not taking his normal allowed allotment of time considering his tournament participation so he could report earlier and start work with chelsea. so i imagine it won't be long before he gets there.
so the 5th stand stream wouldn't load for anyone for about the first 10mins of the match. then it kicked on (at least for me) and then about 10 mins later it was completely pulled from the app. laughable.
Anytime there's a close up I keep thinking they only packed their training kits and they forgot to take the label off the back. Just a dreadful kit once you can make it out. As for the game: usual tepid stuff featuring multille players who will barely see a minute this season. Can't believe they had the temerity to charge people for this stuff.
typical early preseason game, clearly lacking fitness. not enough experience at the back in the 2nd half, too often just hoofing the ball out of the back. standout players: Ampadu, Batman & surprisingly, Maatsen.
ampadu looks great, and confident, but he had quite a few forward passes cut out, he wasn't nearly as sharp as i had hoped. it happened like three times in a row and was pretty glaring, but that was during one spell really. that being said i would so much prefer him to Baka who looked so labored and deliberate.
Only saw last 10 minutes of 1st half so far, 2-0 could be more, much crisper front foot forward play, Kov had a beauty of a pass for an assist, and a beauty of a long splitting pass that Tammy could not quite convert, think he going to fit in much better this season in a different approach; Mount looking real good, goal and very involved, good delivering set plays, Barkley had some good chances
Gilmour and Palmer showing well, Baka. not sure he wants to be here disappointing in passing and effort, this group with more late arivals not nerly as crisp, Zouma looks huge