The Blues kicked off their joint-force fight against discrimination friendly match against New England Revolution, with a comfortable 3 nil victory. The friendly match was hosted at the Gillette Stadium in Boston, and it was a joint force effort to help fight against discrimination, hate speech, and antisemitism. It was a successful friendly match encounter between the two teams, with lots of fans in attendance.
Chelsea who recently ended their 2018/2019 premier league campaign with a 0-0 draw against Leicester City 3 days ago, had to travel all the way to Boston to honor this friendly match. The hate speech, discrimination, and antisemitism are all very serious social issues faced in the sports world and in our everyday communities. These are issues that the footballing world in particular, are not taking lightly and are doing everything within their capabilities to help fight against these acts.
For Chelsea, it was great to get the win for their fans and especially the ones that traveled far and wide to witness the game live, and also serve as a preparation for their upcoming Europa League final battle against Arsenal that will be taking place in Baku. The game saw quite some interesting names from the academy that really got the Chelsea fans excited and are hoping for the academy players who have done a great job in their loan spells, to be included into the first team for next season.
New England Revolution were the team who joint forces with the premier league giant, to play their own part in these serious social discrimination concerns. The team who are currently sitting in 12th position in the Major League Soccer table are currently having a mix of ups and downs in their league campaign, and are fighting to move up the table. For them, it was an honor to play against one of the best European club teams and some of the best players in world football and to be part of this great movement. Even though they were on the losing end, it was a great match for both teams and for the fans and the aim to get the message across and at the same time generate funds to support this movement was achieved.
Brief Post-Match Analyses
It was a fantastic atmosphere at the Gillette Stadium, the fans were all excited for the game, both teams were ready to kick off the match in support for the fight against discrimination movement. Chelsea lineup in their usual 4-3-3 formation, while New England lineup in a 4-1-4-1 formation.
Ross Barkley opened the scoring for Chelsea just 3 minutes into the game, firing the ball from close range into the near post, to give Chelsea the lead and the spark going forward.
Olivier Giroud doubled the lead in the 29th minute, putting in a diving header to convert from a Zappacosta low cross.
Ross Barkley sealed the victory for the blues in the 62nd minute, a goal that he will claim after Higuain effort got deflected by his heal.
Overall, it was a very good and successful friendly game between the two teams who have decided to join forces together and help fight against some of the major issues faced in the footballing world and in the general society in general. It was a successful outing for the blues as they start thinking about preparation for their upcoming encounter against the gunners in the finals of the Europa League.