To be fair, the real disrespect towards PSG fans would be to play the international players before they're ready and have them get injured before the season starts. If anything, I'd feel disrespected if Blanc played all the superstars in a meaningless friendly instead of giving time to our young players who need time to prove themselves. But at the same time, I would be annoyed too if for some reason it seemed as if all the big players would participate. That's not the club's fault though.
i doubt they could have just come back on thursday - except for copa america players everyone in every club in france was in camp in week 28. the trophée des champions is in 2 weeks and the season starts in 3! well, usually there's at least a token representation of the stars but in matches like this it's usually the others that are more interesting to watch. i went to chelsea-club america at stanford a few years ago and the first half (with chelsea's stars) was as dull as dishwater, just horrible. the second half was flo malouda's first appearance for CFC and he lit it up. the fans at games like this consist of three layers - on top those who follow the clubs playing and know all the players, on the bottom the subcasual soccer likers who know none of the players. for these two groups a better show is put on by the players who have something to prove... that's even kind of true for the middle layer who knows the stars and only the stars. i was at OL-AC Milan saturday; lyon played grosso modo their best lineup for 60 minutes, but only because it was in our own stadium, the one "gala" pre-season match. i doubt the people in london next week will see the same. the fans in the stadium saturday were an irregular mishmash: numerous people in my section were surprised not to sit in the exact seats on their ticket, and moreso by the fact that they wouldn't be sitting at all, that they'd have to stand all game. some instantly got into synch (even if they didn't know the words _ there were a lot of tourists), others remained grumpy and probably wished they'd sold their tickets. lots of jerseys you'd otherwise NEVER see - some milan but also brazil, MU, bayern... even inter and juve! people who just wanted to see a game while on vacation and didn't care who it was.
Monday 20 July 2015 - Pingry High School - New Jersey (USA) 16:30 (22:30 CET): Press Conference with Laurent Blanc and a player 17:30 (23:30 CET): Training closed to public and media Tuesday 21 July 2015 - Harrison - New Jersey (USA) 20:30 (02:30 CET): Paris Saint-Germain vs Fiorentina Red Bull Arena International Champions Cup 2015 - Matchday 2 Wednesday 22 July 2015 - Pingry High School - New Jersey (USA) Training closed to public and media Thursday 23 July 2015 - Pingry High School - New Jersey (USA) 17:00 (23:00 CET): Training open to the media Friday 24 July 2015 - Pingry High School - New Jersey (USA) 16:30 (22:30 CET): Press Conference with Laurent Blanc and a player 17:30 (23:30 CET): Training closed to public and media Saturday 25 July 2015 - Charlotte - North Carolina (USA) 18:00 (00:00 CET): Chelsea vs Paris Saint-Germain Bank of America Stadium International Champions Cup 2015 - Matchday 3 Sunday 26 July 2015 - Pingry High School - New Jersey (USA) 10:30 (16:30 CET): Training open to the media
2-0 HT. Team is playing good. Ibra is dropping deep and distributing. I guess he'll be doing more of that this season since Cavani will play CF. Augustin keeps scoring
Augustin has done wonderfully so far this preseason. Nothing Trapp could do about the goal from a few minutes ago
I was at the game with my friend who got me a free ticket due to the season passes he has at Red Bull Arena. Entertaining game I thought although almost all the goals were scored at the opposite end from where we were sitting, except for Ibra's score. Here's Sirigu lounging around before he came on in the second half.
For others like me that are interested but can't go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Trophée_des_Champions BeIN Sports USA will have it live: http://www.livesoccertv.com/match/1652431/psg-vs-olympique-lyonnais/
Next stop Charlotte North Carolina on Saturday, Chelsea just got a 4 - 2 haircut in New York, PSG fans need to sing/hum the Champions' League theme song.
Aurier as a CB? Why? Stambouli starting in Mottas natural position, DM. Lol Augustine is a really promising player, juked Terry out his chiropractic shoes.
Apparently Blanc is still traumatized by the reaction to him playing TS during that friendly last summer. I'm sure TS and/or Marqui will come on at some point