【FULL MATCH】 Chelsea vs. Wrexham | Match Friendlies 2024
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00:00:00So we'll be talking to him at halftime. Alexis is ready to interview Rob McElhenney
00:00:07and we are pretty much ready for action here. First game of this pre-season for Chelsea but
00:00:15it's Wrexham who get us underway. Red and blue, two teams who in their own ways, their own very
00:00:24different ways, have been transformed by overseas ownership. I guess Casey in the last two or three
00:00:34years, Chelsea have perhaps left more questions than answers in terms of the direction they're
00:00:42going. Yeah absolutely no question. It was a case of just signing anybody that was available,
00:00:47changing managers and there just hasn't been any kind of consistency with Chelsea over the last
00:00:52couple years where it's been exactly the opposite with Wrexham. With the Hollywood ownership coming
00:01:00in, being able to kind of write the financials with Wrexham that were in some pretty serious
00:01:07trouble and then back-to-back promotions and looking to keep going. It's been impressive
00:01:15from what Rob and Ryan have been able to do at Wrexham and then combine that with the success
00:01:21of the television series as well. Yeah the unbridled success, all sorts of Emmy nominations
00:01:28coming their way. Chelsea would just love to get back to success on the football pitch. They
00:01:34had a taste of it didn't they? Tail end of last season, finished well for the Blues. Five
00:01:37consecutive victories in the in the Premier League. They won the final five games to finish
00:01:42in sixth place which looked to be a respectable first year in charge for Mauricio Pochettino.
00:01:49Particularly given what had preceded it, Casey, which was a 12th place finish in that awful
00:01:5422-23 campaign and yet Pochettino was let go. Yeah that was really surprising. I think that
00:02:00if he hadn't had that five match run then it wouldn't have been surprising. But with that
00:02:05you thought okay they've kind of figured out who he wants to keep, who he probably wants to get rid
00:02:10of, what kind of areas need to be strengthened and then it was basically hitting the reset button
00:02:16all over again and so there's going to be a lot of pressure on Mariska to be able to get it right
00:02:20straight away. Oh a flare-up straight away between Colwell and James McLean. Friendly? What friendly?
00:02:29Well James McLean is never one to back down is he? But seriously? Two minutes in?
00:02:37Well I don't know if there was just a little kick out from McLean
00:02:40and obviously Colwell didn't agree with it and then made a quick reaction straight away.
00:02:52Levi Colwell, a 21 year old. So he's going to pass this ball Adrian and watch that little kick
00:02:57and it's like hey this is pre-season, this is the first game, this is a friendly,
00:03:00why are we kicking people here in the opening minutes? And I think we saw that the other day.
00:03:06In Santa Barbara where there was a couple tackles early in the match where you and I were kind of
00:03:10questioning the pre-season attitude and it's starting even earlier today. Were they reading
00:03:18that the WWE was in this stadium once upon a time? I guess or maybe an American football tackle I'm
00:03:24not sure but it was yeah it wasn't very happy but I think everybody will calm down.
00:03:36Well
00:03:40if Chelsea were hoping for a nice calm sort of working their jet lag legs away and into the
00:03:46US tour then perhaps Wrexham have other ideas here tonight as Chelsea have themselves a free kick.
00:03:55First look at the young striker they've signed Mark
00:03:58Guillaume and that's one of the Wrexham new arrivals George Dobson.
00:04:03Big pick up for them Dobson who was the Charlton captain last year in League One.
00:04:10It's the league that Wrexham are now preparing for life in.
00:04:13Well we felt they defended very well set pieces and organizationally the other day against Bournemouth.
00:04:18Now we know that this Chelsea side has
00:04:22maybe a little bit more dynamic up front than Bournemouth have but still they're gonna have
00:04:30to defend equally well if not better tonight if they want to keep things tight as opposed to last
00:04:36season when Chelsea was James taking and may have caught the outside of the post trying to catch
00:04:43Okonkwo cheating a little. Yeah Okonkwo was always going to try to see if he could just make sure that
00:04:48he had the outside of the post covered but the wall wasn't lined up as well as he would like
00:04:54and in the end they're able to swing it around and he got around pretty well looked like he may
00:04:58have just had it covered probably had a little heart in his mouth moment there for a second but
00:05:02in the end goal kick. Rhys James.
00:05:11Captain's armband. Ten Premier League games last year only five starts. It's an injury-wracked
00:05:18campaign because there are so many Chelsea players you could use that description about last year.
00:05:25It's quite extraordinary.
00:05:30They have a massive squad even by Premier League standards but
00:05:34they had to go very deep into that squad at times last year. And it sounds like they're trying to
00:05:41change that a little bit this season and being able to move some players around and see if they
00:05:46can make it a little bit more manageable and they still obviously are going to want to bring in new
00:05:50players as well so it'll be very important to see kind of how this looks from the beginning in
00:05:56these first couple matches in this pre-season tour and then as more players who are on break
00:06:02after international duty filter their way back into the pre-season we'll see who's moving in
00:06:08which direction. It's interesting looking at James McLean he's not playing where we expected him to
00:06:16for Wrexham. KC's almost going as one of the three-man frontliners.
00:06:21It's an interesting searching ball looking for Mark Guio.
00:06:26Yeah it will be interesting to see just kind of how Wrexham defend.
00:06:30We talked about you know they dropped into a back five the other day and defended very well without
00:06:36possession. I can't assume that they're thinking that they're going to have a lot of possession
00:06:42this match as well. We looked when Ollie Palmer was the sole striker we didn't exactly know where
00:06:47McLean was going to line up picking more either left back or kind of left mid and he's kind of
00:06:51almost as a second striker. Lots of questions swirling around what Enzo Marescu is going to
00:07:02try and do tactically. Chelsea does like a possession game as Bolton makes inroads good cross
00:07:09to Lee trying to help it on and the inch it spun kindly for Levi Colwell.
00:07:19Yeah it opened up really well after possession was turned over and
00:07:22it was something we saw the other day against Bournemouth as well. We saw that
00:07:28Wrexham maybe weren't as clinical in the final third as they needed to be against Premier League
00:07:33opposition knowing that they were only going to have a handful of chances. Bournemouth gave them
00:07:38those and they weren't able to capitalize and then in the end the equalizer came in the second
00:07:43half after the own goal right before halftime. But for the most part it was it was a really
00:07:47good exercise and again when they when they find those opportunities against this Chelsea side
00:07:52they're going to have to be more clinical if they're going to get something out of this game
00:07:56tonight. Colwell with the sharp layoff this is Tyreke George really exciting 18 year old
00:08:11out of the Chelsea academy.
00:08:12Here's Tosin big signing from Fulham of course and rarely for Chelsea arriving on a free transfer
00:08:28that doesn't happen too often after four years just across West London with your old club KC Fulham
00:08:35it was great for them as well. Yeah you can see where when the opportunity arose that Chelsea
00:08:41snatched him up particularly in a situation where they're not quite sure what the finances
00:08:46are going to look like until a couple other players move on been a lot of talk in the
00:08:50newspapers and just to see what you said Adrian with that that massive squad size to then be
00:08:58bringing in other players without really moving any of them on it looks like they're going to
00:09:04be moving several players on but it's always tricky when new faces arrive and when you have
00:09:10somebody that you watch week in and week out who's really one of your neighbors it makes it
00:09:14that much easier particularly on a free. Just to compare and contrast the two teams we're watching
00:09:21tonight Chelsea currently have a first team squad of some 43 players and if you were to put a
00:09:28transfer value on that entire squad which the website transfer mart does all the way it'll come
00:09:33give you the figure 1.2 billion dollars they're worth Wrexham by contrast
00:09:39squad of 28 players KC and their combined value is some 12 million
00:09:46there's players on Chelsea that make more than the value of of the Wrexham players
00:09:5463 places separating the two teams at the end of the season in the English football pyramid
00:10:03is chosen
00:10:13Chelsea coming to the U.S. for the third consecutive season
00:10:18they were pretty late arriving here as well and didn't touch down
00:10:22in northern California left London on Monday evening didn't touch down till early Tuesday
00:10:26morning three hours of the morning had one quick training session yesterday at Stanford and
00:10:34here they are the next day
00:10:38Phil Parkinson and his boys have been here quite a bit longer of course on the Wrex Coast tour
00:10:50but I think there was to take in the perspective when they
00:10:53are in these particularly earlier preseason matches is knowing that
00:10:57the teams have been doing two and three days trainings they probably had a hard training
00:11:02session this morning as well but it's really about not the outcome of these matches it's
00:11:09about where they are that first match of the season and so yeah there'll be changes it's
00:11:16always the fun part for us when we're doing these games when the mass substitutions come in later in
00:11:20the game and it is it's a it's it's been a little loose so far for for Chelsea in particular
00:11:27particularly in the once they get past the midfield and are trying to find that final
00:11:33ball into what we're again are noticing is a well-organized Wrexham defense that drops into
00:11:40a back five defensively and clogs up a lot of holes yeah that was Caldwell who
00:11:46uh intercepted again and resumed his hostilities with James McLean
00:11:56so Wrexham perhaps a little bit further along as we've just outlined Casey in their preparations
00:12:00their season starts a week earlier they begin life in league one against Wiccan Wanderers
00:12:06on August the 10th Chelsea have eight days in addition to wait for their opener which
00:12:12of course is against Manchester City how about that for a nice easy start for the Blues
00:12:23it'll be a big day for Enzo Maresca for sure has to go up against his uh
00:12:28his mentor and Pep Guardiola right off the bat
00:12:32and then with with Chelsea having five games on this tour they're going to be able to
00:12:38particular in these early matches almost just treat them as as fitness exercises and then as
00:12:42they get further along and like I said they start to get some players filtering back into the squad
00:12:48off of their their breaks after international duty it'll start to look a lot more like what
00:12:53you're going to see on that opening day but these are the opportunities that players have that maybe
00:12:59they wouldn't necessarily if it hadn't been a a summer with so many different international
00:13:04tournaments going on and it's all about impressing impressing the new manager once again at Chelsea
00:13:11it seems like they go through that every summer but they have to impress a new manager and give
00:13:16themselves the the opportunity to shine Maresca two years at Manchester City as we outlined one
00:13:26of them was in charge of the development squad where he had none other than Cole Palmer in that
00:13:31city development squad and then he came back as the assistant to Pep Guardiola alongside
00:13:38Rodolfo Borel those two assistants part of the trouble winning team
00:13:48Olly Palmer get going with Sebastian Rivan outside him he gets the nod from the start
00:13:54tonight one of Wrexham's new arrivals Seb Rivan played in the Aston Villa academy growing up
00:14:01where's number 53 for Wrexham but played all of last year in the championship for Roveron so
00:14:09again an example of some Wrexham's canny maneuvers in the transfer market getting
00:14:15players who've played at a higher level well in showing the ambition the ambition that
00:14:20this squad has shown straight away and players want to be a part of it because they understand
00:14:25that it's not maybe normally going to a league one side it's a side that has higher ambitions
00:14:34and could very easily find themselves in the championship and fighting for a spot in the
00:14:39premier league we talked about it the other day that you know Bournemouth are a great example
00:14:44to a small club who works their way up and and find success in the premier league which is
00:14:51which is very difficult to do it's one thing getting there it's another thing having some
00:14:55staying power going down getting yourself back up because we've seen the opposite happen so often
00:15:00where a team gets relegated and the next thing you know they're they're two or three leagues down
00:15:04before you even blink so good example that they played the other day yeah the cherries
00:15:13almost the shining example for Wrexham how they'd love to follow in those footsteps
00:15:22they're halfway there two consecutive promotions but two big steps to come two enormous steps yeah
00:15:29if you're if you're going to say probably going from non-league to league one is is much less
00:15:35of a gap than it is going from the champ from league one to the championship to the premier
00:15:40league so the ownership knows they know it's a it's it's a tough task they're very happy with
00:15:45where they're at they're happy with what they've done so far and now it's just a matter of you know
00:15:50solidifying bringing in the right players they're happy with the coaching staff why wouldn't they be
00:15:57and and then it's a case of stadiums and i mean there's a whole lot to it but it is it's a
00:16:03fascinating story and and one that is being very well documented yeah already they're not going to
00:16:11be the the big fish in the small pond heading into next season look at league one the likes
00:16:16of Birmingham city Bolton Reading Charlton all clubs have been in the premier league themselves
00:16:22relatively recently
00:16:30Chelsea of course with designs and ambitions at the opposite end of the football pyramid can they
00:16:40make immediate progress under Enzo Maresco that's a good looking ball and
00:16:45Tosin is going to have to scramble to get there he does though ahead of Rivan
00:16:50finds it back to Robert Sanchez
00:17:02as we welcome those of you joining us on ESPN delighted to have you with us late sunny evening
00:17:08here in Santa Clara California at Levi Stadium as Chelsea and Wrexham are about a quarter of an
00:17:17hour plus into the first half here Chelsea getting their first taste of life under their new manager
00:17:23Enzo Maresco Wrexham continuing on their Wrex Coast tour that's included a 1-1 draw against
00:17:30Bournemouth this past Saturday just down the coast in Santa Barbara Adrian Healy Casey Keller and
00:17:36Alexis Nunez with you and Casey uh those joining a little late on ESPN haven't missed too much yet
00:17:44one of the new arrivals manages to fashion a corner at the first of the game yeah really what
00:17:48it has been is an organized Wrexham defense and the Chelsea that haven't really been able to find
00:17:54a final pass in the final third so it'll be we know that this is early in pre-season particularly
00:18:00for for Chelsea who just got off the plane their first match of this this live match
00:18:08and Wrexham who are that little bit further along
00:18:13first corner delivered and flicked on
00:18:18Maurice James arriving which was James who delivered the uh the corner kick and Guillaume
00:18:29so close to getting on the end of that flick yeah it's a it's a cuckoo at the near post
00:18:35who's disappointed that he didn't get enough on it and then he probably wished he'd gotten a
00:18:38little more on it and Guillaume might have snuck in at the far post but a little loose defending
00:18:46allowing and cuckoo that near post space a lot of eyebrows raised perhaps around the footballing
00:18:52world where Enzo Maresca was handed the reins of Chelsea this past offseason replacing Mauricio
00:18:57Pochettino a little surprisingly departed after a strong end for the season but Maresca
00:19:04having two new signings their first football today and you saw Nkunku on that last corner
00:19:12it's almost like getting a new signing back in Christophe Nkunku who played so little last year
00:19:17good run by Madhu Ake and that will result in another Chelsea corner but one of the big
00:19:23differences when you move up the leagues is the pace of the individual players throughout the
00:19:29premier league and here's a prime example just isolated out wide just a little touch and run
00:19:35good recovery speed though to make the last-ditch challenge at the expense of another corner
00:19:43that was again Sebastian Ravan one of Wrexham's new arrivals Arthur Aconquo is now a permanent
00:19:49member of this Wrexham story after being on loan from Arsenal for most of last season
00:19:56post-corner still up for grabs
00:20:00referee Timothy Ford signaling handball
00:20:13yep you see just kind of bounced around awkwardly and in the end pretty easy call
00:20:19Tosin just bounces awkwardly off hits him in the arm
00:20:26he's Olly Palmer
00:20:30we saw the Wrexham team sheet tonight we thought well it's Palmer on his own up front but
00:20:36to our surprise James McLean has been partnering him up there
00:20:42Phil Parkinson at the dawn of his fourth year in charge two consecutive promotions and now he's
00:20:50heading into a league where he has an awful lot of experience and success Phil Parkinson has coached
00:20:57more games in league one than any other league he's been involved with and he's coached over 800
00:21:02games in his career yeah I mean obviously they're they're very happy with what they've gotten so far
00:21:08in Parkinson and and again he has the experience at this level and higher so there's there's no
00:21:16reason why you don't give him a hundred percent opportunity to see if he can continue this great
00:21:20run oh a concord charge down by Guillaume you saw that back pass coming it was
00:21:29sprinting to apply the pressure on the concord
00:21:33yeah it was the turn but here again there's that that pace difference and you can just see
00:21:37I like you I like I like making that effort to see if he can get in there and disrupt
00:21:43the goalkeeper and does a good job but luckily for Wrexham the deflection goes perfectly well
00:21:49out of bounds and they're able to throw him but this is the situation now as you're halfway through
00:21:53this first half more or less that a lot of possession from Chelsea and we assumed that
00:21:58that was going to be the case and it's going to be really important I think as this match progresses
00:22:03those opportunities that Wrexham is able to hold the ball up maybe you know shift the the halves a
00:22:09little bit get a few touches of their own and what we're seeing is it is a couple difficult
00:22:15challenge because of just that difference in the pace that Chelsea possess against Wrexham
00:22:22yellow card handed out George Dobson was on the receiving end as was Christopher Nkunku
00:22:30of course Nkunku with some painful memories of the US tour last year
00:22:41it's a replay of that earlier chant
00:22:48and then there's a
00:22:51foul was actually on Lavia wasn't it
00:22:55clean following through and it results
00:23:00in this free kick for Chelsea with its own it just glanced on and beyond
00:23:07everyone crashing into the far post again yeah it's been some excellent service into the box
00:23:13from Chelsea and Tosin and Nkunku were in good positions and multiple times so far in this first
00:23:20half opportunities off of set pieces from Chelsea that they just haven't been able to direct the
00:23:25headers on target he's James trying to pick up the scraps with an equal to it but unable to stay
00:23:34on his feet does pick up the foul though in the process Rivan from the Aston Villa academy
00:23:42had loan spells the likes of Grimsby and Hereford and then a full season in the championship last
00:23:48year with Rotherham still only 21
00:23:56new arrivals also playing for the start tonight including Lewis Brunt
00:24:01who's on the ball now with centre-back
00:24:08Brunt who was in league two but playing against Wrexham last year for Mansfield who also got
00:24:13promoted a couple of premier league appearances to his name as well with Leicester City
00:24:27Logia early on just kind of showing management that he's not afraid to put the work in and
00:24:33chasing down lost causes and causing problems in the reps in defense
00:24:37now that the turnover Matawake into a promising spot and he turned into trouble
00:24:43and that allowed Dobson to intervene yeah really great recovery from Dobson but
00:24:47Matawake really should have done better should have been more direct
00:24:50tried to cut back inside on his left foot to see if he could open up an angle for a shot and
00:24:55Dobson does a great job recovering and eventually making the challenge
00:24:58yeah I think he could have been just a little bit more patient and just waited for
00:25:03runs to come centrally instead elected to go himself and wasn't the best decision right
00:25:10when you make those decisions Adrian you have to execute yeah if you're going to take it to
00:25:15yourself and ignore some of your teammates you better hope that you're able to uh
00:25:20you have to execute yeah if you're going to take it to yourself and ignore some of your teammates
00:25:26you better hope that you're able to uh to make the move and that chance went begging as it was
00:25:33really the best opportunity for Chelsea and this is where wrecks him have to be careful we saw this
00:25:37the other day particularly in the second half against Bournemouth when they had more of the
00:25:41ball when they found themselves in positions to maybe commit one or two more players in the attack
00:25:46and opened him up on the counter ollie palmer's header and james which he knew he was about 10
00:25:52yards offside by about yeah two three yards let's go back to that run from uh matawake
00:26:01well what are we used to saying we're used to seeing rexham in these last
00:26:05in the last match being a very good position with five at the back and you can see when they got
00:26:10stretched he had a chance to take the shot and then elected to come back inside to improve his
00:26:15angle and but there's that change of pace again that it's so difficult to defend leaves revan in
00:26:22his wake defensive cover arriving again from dobson you already tell what his role is going to be
00:26:32george dobson who played with phil parkinson at sunderland
00:26:38three years in league one and barely missed a game for charlton
00:26:45just trying to get his breath back dobson he's made a couple key challenges here in the last
00:26:50five minutes corner near post on march off badia shield couldn't get a a clean hit on it
00:27:02and the matawake as the rexham defense holds firm and they get themselves a free kick as well but
00:27:10benoit badia shield the french center back was the man who had the opportunity for chelsea
00:27:19yeah just absolutely wide open and just whiffs at it and then as this ball's bouncing around here
00:27:25i think eventually it falls to maybe but look i mean just wide open and just does not make a
00:27:31challenge and then kuku comes in and it gets taken away from him by by his own teammate and
00:27:38and then eventually there's a yellow card for meduka just simply because i think he just wanted
00:27:43to stop the counter-attack i don't think he really needed to worry about it i think he could
00:27:46have the pace that chelsea possess and their ability to and then get back into defensive
00:27:53shape it's going to be pretty impressive the rexham bench are all up on their feet
00:27:59james's high challenge was deemed to be a fair one now tyreek george
00:28:04that's just over intricate at times from chelsea where they've
00:28:09gotten the opportunity to put across and it's always difficult if you keep stepping on the
00:28:13ball and bringing it back because the players in the center of the field are going to be making
00:28:18runs into positions and then if they don't yeah there's the high challenge that they assumed that
00:28:22on elliot that that elliot lee that really probably should have been called but wasn't
00:28:29lee on the receiving end haven't called his name too much so far this evening is james
00:28:36he's dispossessed by dobson good outlet pass as well has revan on his way now mclean was he on
00:28:42site flag stays down for now james mclean oh why not yeah why not didn't really have any help
00:28:49sanchez was in two minds and i'm a big fan of if you're not quite sure go back on your line and
00:28:55give time for reinforcements to come in and and in the end the shot was from an angle that
00:29:01sanchez was always favored
00:29:07good work from brunt to keep rexham on the front foot revan trying to
00:29:11work his way around reese james he wasn't about to let that happen
00:29:18yeah reese james was hoping that he could shield it to his goalkeeper but
00:29:21reese james is one of the longest serving players at the club by a wide margin now haven't been
00:29:26in chelsea since 2019 mark guillou one of the new arrivals has looked impressive
00:29:33the 18 year olds making more mischief but tarry george fellow 18 year old
00:29:40straight to the back of the net and he's got it he's got it he's got it he's got it he's got it
00:29:46but tarry george fellow 18 year old straight offside let's go back to the
00:29:54the moment here for rexham to shine you know it's that little outlet pass and i think what's
00:29:59happening is because because chelsea have been so comfortable in possession they're pushing
00:30:04more numbers up and on the odd occasion when it broke but from that angle sanchez was always
00:30:09favored to make the save was going to take something special from the client well there
00:30:13aren't many rexham players who've scored in their career against chelsea but james mclean is one of
00:30:17them he scored once in his career two two draw for west brom the only time he hasn't been on the
00:30:24losing side against chelsea in eight appearances against the blues
00:30:34sanchez though as you said casey very easy save a lot of question marks around the goalkeeping
00:30:39position still for chelsea will it be sanchez when the season opens up there's been all sorts
00:30:43of rumors swirling that they're looking to bring someone else in petrovich looks to be on the way
00:30:49out yeah it's it's it's going to be interesting to see how that shakes up and you know clearly
00:30:54it looks like right now that it's you know sanchez is not necessarily the start but sanchez is right
00:31:01now until a potential signing can come in and then the question mark will be is is what type of
00:31:10signing will it be is it a signing where you're instantly know that that will be the new number
00:31:15one or is it will or will it be just a signing to to put competition on sanchez so we started
00:31:23as number one didn't he under russio pochettino and lost his place to petrovich and then
00:31:29got injured as well maresca does like a goalkeeper who can contribute to the passing game
00:31:40so
00:31:45good to dispel this unfolding at the moment for rexip yeah these are really important when you're
00:31:51having as much time as you are having to defend without the ball that you do get those opportunities
00:31:56in possession to be able to just i don't want to say necessarily take a breather but it's definitely
00:32:03harder work without the ball than it is with the ball and those moments where you are on the
00:32:09ascendancy where you are in more of possession can can make a big difference well you can catch
00:32:17another international club friendly this friday on espn plus 7 30 eastern liverpool taking on
00:32:24betis it's at 7 30 on friday night on espn and espn plus is revan
00:32:33continues the good recent work for rexip
00:32:39game starting to liven up a bit after a sleepy first 10 or 15 minutes here in the
00:32:46early evening sunshine hope you're enjoying our coverage adrian healy casey keller
00:32:50alexis nunez is with us too we'll hear from rob macalini the rexim owner at
00:32:56halftime alexis will be able to talk to him and we can stick around for that
00:33:05chelsea starting their five game u.s preseason tour
00:33:11and go to notre dame to play celtic next of course they played five games here
00:33:18last summer as well as gu picks this up in the edge of the area nice layoff for lavia
00:33:31who was james wasn't able to react
00:33:35but as soon as ollie palma threatens james was there to take command
00:33:40which james has actually suspended for the first game of the premier league season a red card
00:33:45hooked up in the penultimate game of last season against brighton
00:33:49carries over into this year this season yeah i've seen a few players that have
00:33:56had to sit that first match because of red gay red cards from the season before
00:34:01yourself never amongst them of course can i say were you ever sent off twice oh you were
00:34:09miss george
00:34:13again a good-looking service those crosses from the left have been threatening casey but
00:34:18yeah they have been a couple times off a set pieces and
00:34:23it's just nice it's nice to see the fans
00:34:25into a good spot he's just making sure he's heading every ball isn't he
00:34:36just yeah you talk to him it's obvious how much he loves it even if it's still relatively new to him
00:34:43four or five years ago but that that it goes a long ways with the with the
00:34:49fans and when there's a commitment miss george sizing it up and then taking the shot eventually
00:34:55still might break their way and it does eventually for christopher and kunko
00:35:01who's on target in the usa again
00:35:08last summer proved to be so agonizing for the fans and the fans are still
00:35:13last summer proved to be so agonizing for kunko that's it most of the season that followed he's
00:35:21looking to start again it's a pretty good way to start here in santa clara people talk sometimes
00:35:27why do you hit shots from distance why do you put balls into areas when you're
00:35:32when maybe your odds of scoring yourself aren't great well here's a prime example
00:35:36the initial ball comes in and then it gets headed out wide as it falls out to tyreek
00:35:40george he kind of takes his time and then he hits into an area
00:35:45because sometimes the fortunate rebound just falls to one of your teammates
00:35:51and it's colwell who does a really great job of just almost posting up against cleworth and just
00:35:56blocking and then then sometimes you just need the ball as good strikers often and have it happen
00:36:04often and have it happen they're in the right place at the right time and then kuku
00:36:10takes advantage of that nice bounce and then from that distance with that much time it was
00:36:16only a matter to see the back of the net ripple
00:36:22the man who was the bundesliga player of the year in 2022 christopher and kunko
00:36:30he scored a phenomenal 58 goals for rb leipzig in two seasons in all competitions that's a lot
00:36:39of goals casey at that level yeah we mean he was he was very very dominant it wasn't surprising that
00:36:45a club like chelsea had come in for him gu is going to get there first mark gu the young spaniard
00:36:53teeing it up for kunku but rexham able to recover the redshirt swarming in the box
00:37:00i think gu is impressed extremely well just from this willingness to run and
00:37:05and the timing of his runs and chasing down lost causes and putting pressure on the rexham defense
00:37:11too much yeah yeah i agree about gu who's really caught the eye and
00:37:16you know he times us to run i thought you know he's coming from a nice deep position in his
00:37:24okunkwa i thought instantly was gonna didn't want to be where he found himself but does the smart
00:37:30thing doesn't take the player down has the cover of his player gets back into a good spot forces
00:37:35the pass and then kunku is then unable to create the space to to take a shot on the empty goal
00:37:42gu of course announced himself to the footballing world by scoring
00:37:46after 23 seconds on his debut for barcelona against athletic bilbao
00:37:52it was last october he went on to get a goal in the in the champions league as well
00:38:03six million dollars investment in the future for chelsea but it's going to be interesting to see if
00:38:08it's going to be interesting to see if you can really catch enzo maresco's eye and play a part
00:38:13right from the start he looks the part doesn't he and he's not a typical barcelona player that's
00:38:18what they say about him he's he's a finisher he's a he's a deep runner well that what i also like is
00:38:23the ability to kind of he's just he just wants to find the shoulder of the last defender and make
00:38:29that run either inside or out and you know sometimes it's also about understanding as a
00:38:35young player you know kind of what your role will be i mean there's there's there's no question that
00:38:41it might not be as the primary but then if you're willing to do the work as well that can go a long
00:38:49long ways and can you get a lot of respect from your teammates as a young player when you're
00:38:54willing just to do the dirty work yeah again a look at enzo maresco who has to sort through
00:39:02a 43 man first team plague squad well there's been some chalabhan has gotten a lot of criticism
00:39:11why he hasn't been brought on the trip and clearly there's a lot of difficult decisions
00:39:16that have to be made and when you have that size of a squad and you know you have to trim it down
00:39:21and you you know that you know who are going to be players that are capable of being sold
00:39:28but then are there are the people that you know are committed to the club it is there's a lot of
00:39:35there's a lot of work that needs to be done with this chelsea squad before the season starts
00:39:41you mentioned trevor chalabhan people jump into the conclusion that he perhaps is for sale
00:39:47haven't been left behind and maresco not being drawn on that yesterday in his first conference
00:39:53first conference as the chelsea bench and you can tune in for the next international club
00:40:02friendly featuring chelsea they take on celtic from notre dame stadium that's saturday at 4
00:40:07p.m eastern on abc chelsea and celtic from notre dame an excellent afternoon there on saturday
00:40:19chelsea will go on to play club america man city and finish up against real madrid
00:40:32yeah la via making an interesting turn centrally as he's not
00:40:36george dobson not one to shy away from a challenge and
00:40:40maybe not the spot you want to make that turn
00:40:49well both these teams will be anxious to pick up where they left off at the tail
00:40:55end of last season both of them finishing strong wit rexham winning seven of their last eight
00:41:00in league two to go up in second place
00:41:05and of course chelsea winning their last five straight in the premier league
00:41:09to finish on a good note finish in sixth place and she qualified for the europa conference league
00:41:15as a result finished three points behind spurs five points behind villa
00:41:20on the fourth and final champions league spot
00:41:32seemed like it took until that final stretch of the season for
00:41:37pochettino to really get the uh the manpower out there that he was looking for all season long
00:41:42for all season long and then of course another change of coach and now it's
00:41:47enzo marescu's task as we look at madawaki again
00:41:53having a field day on that right hand side he is until the final product and i think that's
00:41:58going to be the and look i'm not going to put a lot of criticism when you just got off a plane
00:42:03it's your first match in pre-season but these are those moments you can see the individual talent
00:42:09and then all of then it comes to making good decisions
00:42:13in good execution and on that case i thought the decision was right the execution not where it
00:42:18needed to be
00:42:24madawaki who did weigh in with eight goals in all competitions last year chelsea including
00:42:30two penalties scored a wonder goal didn't he in the fa cup quarterfinal against leicester city
00:42:35against enzo marescu's team last year
00:42:40chelsea not only finished sick they also had two wembley appearances last year
00:42:45semi-final of the fa cup final of the carabao cup losing both
00:42:50uh
00:43:05very minimal action last year here ankle injury and a thigh injury only played one time
00:43:11in the premier league
00:43:15belgian international
00:43:20um
00:43:25a couple of minutes left in the first half here in santa clara chelsea leading
00:43:29by christopher and kunku's goal
00:43:34rexham did score against premier league opposition on saturday did they
00:43:38well may have given them a helping hand in that helping head into a james hill own goal
00:43:46that's have scored just before the break in the leading ball of that halftime
00:43:52and it was similar with being born this first match in in the preseason as well you could see
00:43:57some some rust particularly in that first half is george
00:44:05he was for handball
00:44:08more from the crowd sort of half-hearted one from enzo marescu as well but
00:44:13for you timothy ford not interested yeah it would have been harsh on elliott lee for sure
00:44:19but his arm was in that proverbial non-natural position up over his head but yeah i think
00:44:26that how close that was to the to the way the ball came up that'd be a pretty harsh call
00:44:42that is shield
00:44:46to you
00:44:53now across to the french center back again
00:45:00close in good footwork in tight quarters
00:45:04different
00:45:11as this half has progressed you've been able to see the confidence that
00:45:15chelsea have in their recovery speed so they're able to push players
00:45:18way up the field really pin rexham into their own half because they know if there is a loose pass
00:45:24that rexham on the counter-attack that chelsea has the pace defensively to get back in recovery
00:45:31and this is half has progressed chelsea have also gotten cleaner
00:45:35in their touches and on the ball and the way they've been able to to connect centrally
00:45:46and he'll call will
00:45:50his debut on opening day last year against liverpool
00:45:54against liverpool his first goal against brighton in december also got his first england cap
00:46:01last year coming up on the halftime report stay with us alexis nunes will
00:46:05be joined by rob mcIlhenny and the rexham ownership group
00:46:10and also full first half highlights and analysis from here
00:46:15what do you make of the first 45 minutes of the enzo maresca era casey i thought it was a
00:46:26as expected a little bit scrappy to start with it's palma gives him something to think about
00:46:32i was waiting for the flag to come up that never came up but again there was that example of that
00:46:38recovery speed that chelsea knows they have against rexham and so yeah organized rexham
00:46:44once again to patience but eventually rexham's resistance was worn down and now
00:46:53here comes the cavalry expect many changes it could be it could be every outfield player we're
00:46:59looking at it sure looks that way yeah there were 10 blue shirts warming up with some vigor just
00:47:06before the break i think we've seen all we're going to see a mark guillou tonight what was
00:47:10very impressive first outing for him seeing wesley for fana out there right
00:47:17raheem sterling looks like he's going to play in the second half
00:47:31what you might have expected given what we talked about at halftime the fact that chelsea only
00:47:35landed here 100 yes late on monday night into the early hours of of tuesday
00:47:43and precisely one training session at stanford
00:47:48and then it's
00:47:51first outing of the tour just a night later
00:47:55is out there from the start as well
00:48:00mogo chukwu wearing 16 is also there
00:48:25jesse now going from left to right on the screens of course
00:48:29five nil winners against rexham in chapel hill north carolina last summer
00:48:36a whole flurry of late goals in front of 50 000 there to widen the scoreline on that night
00:48:44raheem sterling trying to go on the end of that long ball from ben chilwell
00:48:55sterling start of his third season now with the club
00:49:0210 goals last year in all competitions 28 in the premier league
00:49:07and the assumption is he'll still have a chance to really
00:49:11claim that left-sided spot as his own under enzo maresca plenty of competition in that department
00:49:19plenty of competition in every department and that's expected
00:49:24you're not at a club like chelsea and think you're going to just
00:49:27cruise through anything particularly as you get a little older and maybe had a
00:49:30a season or two where you're not going to be able to do that
00:49:34you get a little older and maybe had a season that wasn't quite to your expectation
00:49:43looking for the free kick george dobson has already showed what he's made of
00:49:51mclean working at ford elliott lee didn't see a huge amount of him in the first half
00:49:55lee didn't play on saturday
00:49:58of course was the club's second top scorer behind paul mullen as that cross
00:50:04gets a deflection and swell
00:50:09changing goal as well
00:50:12chelsea
00:50:18yeah awkward just catches his own teammate with the ball and then is able to recover
00:50:22eddie beech is the man
00:50:32lucas bergstrom i i'm sorry is the man in goal instead of robert sanchez at the start of his
00:50:39second half bergstrom
00:50:45bergstrom on the bench many times last season went on loan
00:50:51to sweden in the second half of the year
00:50:56all right
00:51:08angelo
00:51:16so
00:51:30another 18 year old another product of the chelsea youth academy he wears number 34
00:51:36he made his premier league debut at the tail end of last season against spurs
00:51:41england under 17 international dobson
00:51:52as gusto stepping in to win it
00:52:03so
00:52:10molly palmer without of course his partner in crime and super paul mullet
00:52:20going in for back surgery
00:52:23preventing him from playing a part in this u.s tour that was after the injury picked up a year ago
00:52:33so
00:52:49angelo who wears 41 for chelsea
00:52:5519 year old who spent most of last year on loan in france with strasbourg
00:53:02playing under patrick vieira
00:53:16dobson
00:53:3141 all over the top which bergstrom had to come and deal with
00:53:38yeah it was well read i mean it was one of those ones where you were hoping that you get a little
00:53:41block from your defender which eventually did and made his decision that much easier it's always
00:53:46tricky coming in at halftime yes you get a a little bit of a warm-up at how during the half
00:53:52which is better than having to come in cold but still it's just not the same as when you start a
00:53:57match and then kind of in your mental progression so it's always nice to get that early touch having
00:54:02to read the play and i don't expect he's going to have a lot to do bergstrom in the second half but
00:54:10it's always tricky too when you make 10 changes and you expect uh you know your side to come into
00:54:17it very clean which isn't always the case so this is the current chelsea 11 after all those changes
00:54:28quick quick quick enzo maresca
00:54:34with so many options and possibilities at his disposal
00:54:41the man who's at leicester city side scored over 100 goals in the
00:54:45championship last year they went up in the end with a game to spare after a little scare late on
00:54:51this is mclean leading rexford elliot lee he's putting the brakes on
00:55:02and it doesn't surprise me adrian at this stage of
00:55:05of pre-season for rexham that they've got more of a lineup as they continue to work toward that
00:55:10match fitness that their team is less changes i think with only the one and i think will boil
00:55:17coming in conquo
00:55:23able to deal with the cross from angelo
00:55:30angelo originally from santos that main brazilian powerhouse
00:55:34so
00:55:44i'm surprised rexham haven't had a brazilian player yet i thought it was mandatory that
00:55:49every club had one brazilian player at least well i'm sure the powers that be are they're
00:55:53working on it working quicker to change that
00:55:55that
00:55:59and did make that one switch and half time will boil
00:56:03coming on for max clayworth center back boil wearing number 25
00:56:26maker is the only one
00:56:30to survive the call at halftime the outfield player who stayed out there
00:56:36started the second half
00:56:41there's achampong giving away ravan nice ball from mclean who manages to fend off
00:56:49the first challenge
00:56:53would have been offside
00:57:00you know we talked about the pace that chelsea had defensively and that doesn't really change
00:57:04with fofana and that's your poem coming in as well that they're going to be able to do exactly
00:57:12the same thing that they did to rexham in the first half they're going to be able to push that
00:57:15line high pin rexham in their own half knowing that they have the recovery pace
00:57:24and then what they're able to do then is because of that they know they've got
00:57:28that recovery pace they're able to slide into a back three in possession push the outside
00:57:35players further up and again get get more players in the attack i thought it was something that
00:57:40at times they didn't do as well as i would have liked to have seen chelsea
00:57:44particularly in ryan sterling just causing problems pickpocketing work from sterling
00:57:49sterling save from a conquo using his feet the attack he's not dead yet by any means sterling
00:57:57keeping it alive chill well
00:58:07he declined the opportunity yeah it wasn't there the idea was the last thing you want to do is get
00:58:12that blocked and then force everybody to chase back so i thought he made a good decision is
00:58:17the patience and trying to create the opportunity but rexham do an excellent job of just
00:58:22getting numbers back clogging up the defense but then gifting possession straight back
00:58:27isn't something that phil parkinson size is going to want to do too often if they're going to clear
00:58:31their lines clear their lines get up give themselves some reprieve but instead gifting it
00:58:36back so quickly it's it's really almost a training session right now where chelsea is just trying to
00:58:45find an opening and you know we've talked about it throughout this these these you know these three
00:58:50halves we've seen with rexham they're very well organized defensively they drop back well they
00:58:57space now the the key then will be is is how often can they then get possession for themselves hold
00:59:05the ball up and create an opportunity to get back into this match yeah
00:59:12alexis talking to rob mcellany at halftime he said listen we just want to keep this close
00:59:16yeah and they're doing that so far and that's the key i mean because all you can do is you
00:59:20keep it close and then you never know then there's a set piece of it and then you can't
00:59:24all you can do is you keep it close and then you never know then there's a set piece there's a
00:59:27mistake that you capitalize on if you give up the second and the third quickly then it
00:59:31it becomes uh not the exercise you hope but it is sterling triple omega
00:59:40it was there for him disappointed that he couldn't keep his effort down
00:59:47yeah sterling sterling's done a great job just kind of sliding out wide
00:59:50there's a good job but just gets lucky on the initial ball and
00:59:54ball was out of bounds and a foul but he got away with both of them and then
01:00:00decent save there's the foul there's the ball out of bounds and you're like oh all right it's pre-season
01:00:09and then okonkwo makes the save with his foot
01:00:13from that angle you always again in the expectation it was going to take something special but
01:00:18it's always nice when it probably was a foul and the ball probably was out of
01:00:22bounds that then you don't concede off of something like that
01:00:29elliot lee
01:00:32there's the son of someone used to play against quite regularly
01:00:36casey and rob lee that's when you know you're getting old adrian when you're
01:00:40you're playing against people you play you're you're you're broadcasting on
01:00:43and guys you played against kids
01:00:49and elliot lee he's not even that young he's 29 just keep piling on adrian
01:00:57revan he's looked good oh it's a good service palmer missed it all the way through for the
01:01:03equalizer and to the delight of a lot of the crowd here
01:01:09and the dragons have breathed some fire and have equalized in santa clara
01:01:18full credit to the good work down the left
01:01:26revan involved
01:01:28it's just a when possessions taken over in midfield we talked about waiting for those
01:01:33opportunities revan does a good job after the turnover but chelsea get themselves in a decent
01:01:38defensive position and then it's just lee holds revan just kind of comes down there puts a hopeful
01:01:46ball in and it's just the shape that's part of the problem when you're in a defensive position
01:01:53it's just the shape that's part of the problem when you do make 10 11 saves it at halftime that
01:02:00the shape then gets pushed away and i think there was ideas that it was potentially offside the flag
01:02:08didn't come up and eventually falls to bolton at the far post it was a pretty simple finish in the
01:02:13end yeah luke bolton couldn't miss could he
01:02:16and all of a sudden makes them have the wind in their sails here
01:02:28bolton who played in the championship with luton former man city academy player as well
01:02:40but you see this happen a lot adrian when you when you make those big shifts of
01:02:43complete defenses and guys are looking around for offside but somebody didn't step up somebody
01:02:49went with a runner somebody didn't go with a runner and so yeah it's not surprising and that's
01:02:54what you see in in preseason matches like this when you have wholesale changes at halftime
01:02:59so now it'll be a question is you know when i used to play in these games
01:03:03against lower opposition it was always a case of understanding just
01:03:09just don't embarrass the club your job is to get a result chelsea are not supposed to
01:03:14lose or draw against rexham you can understand that this goal that was conceded because of the
01:03:19circumstances and the changes and whatever else but then there's enough talent left on this field
01:03:24for chelsea after all those changes that they should yeah get themselves back in the lead and
01:03:30that's what and that's what that man wants to see he wants to see character he wants to see okay
01:03:34there's been a you know maybe didn't go as planned in conceding the goal but now how do you react
01:03:42as ollie palmer who played his part in the goal goes down to win another free kick
01:03:47it was look at the miscommunication between who's going to go with the man who's going to go and
01:03:51then probably disappointed with how the challenge came first and then the mismarking at the far
01:04:00post and chillwell stuck in the back marker trying to mark two players in the end as it
01:04:05falls to bolton he's able just to strike it on the empty net so yeah not not real good
01:04:11organization is now we see some changes from from rexham yeah bolton who didn't score the entire
01:04:20league two campaign last year has a goal here and the 49ers stadium has
01:04:28as ollie palmer has made his last contribution
01:04:35sam dalby will be the man to replace him up front
01:04:38logical switch i think stephen fletcher dress fitted tonight's game jordan davies is going to
01:04:47come on ryan barnett also jordan davies to a huge reception firm fan favorite george evans also
01:05:02getting a run out andy cannon
01:05:17so jack marriott is also coming for rexham
01:05:34now a clean is in a lot of space here all of a sudden they're threatening again
01:05:38and mclean's ball didn't find a willing taker yeah the defensive breakdown in chelsea's left
01:05:48hand side i'm not sure if there's an idea that sterling is supposed to drop back into that space
01:05:53unlikely the idea is that he should probably stay high and then whatever the shape is to
01:05:58kind of fall in chillwell's getting stuck overloaded on the chelsea defense
01:06:08having some wobbly moments and they're plenty wobbly moments last year that would have probably
01:06:12been priority number one you would think for enzo mareschio looking at where does he pick up from
01:06:16last year last year casey they conceded 63 goals in the premier league which was their worst
01:06:23defensive total since the pre-premier league era 1990-91 last time they conceded more
01:06:30yeah you can just see that the disarray that players aren't going with with runners and
01:06:36that run comes from a deeper position yeah maybe there was somebody offside centrally
01:06:42but they're not actually playing the ball so yeah no question that it's possible that with all these
01:06:48changes that it's going to take a little while for chelsea to get their defensive shape right
01:06:53but give credit to rexham they've come out in the second half and before these
01:06:57changes were made on their half they found an equalizer and have created two or three
01:07:01other little half chances
01:07:05applying the pressure there andy cannon is well dealt with
01:07:19all those goals conceded last year in the premier league
01:07:21what redressed the balance was what they did at the other end scored 77 well that's that's the
01:07:27only way you're going to survive but they don't want to get themselves in in in in getting shoot
01:07:33outs with opponents they want to be able to keep clean sheets they want to be able to win two one
01:07:38three one you don't want to have to score three four goals to to win games it's excellent when
01:07:46you can and it's great for the fans but or at least for the neutral but you have to be able
01:07:51to be clean defensively if if they're going to be able to finish higher than than sixth place
01:07:56and get themselves back into being a club that's that's challenging at the top of the table
01:08:15crowd reacting to all the wrecks and substitutes being announced here
01:08:29there's many familiar names and faces from the tv series
01:08:35stories of what a club means to a community in both good times and bad
01:08:45that's what's really touched a nerve
01:08:50i can tell you casey there are there are fans of about 70 other low and low division teams in
01:08:54england myself amongst them thinking what if could have been our club quite easily
01:09:06but it truly has been i mean talking to rob mcclehaney at the weekend at the match
01:09:13in santa barbara against born with you know i mean they are they're they're
01:09:18they truly can't believe the fairy tale that it's become and with back-to-back promotions the
01:09:23success of the of the series and everything that comes along with it so it really has been
01:09:29everything that comes along with it so it really has been something special
01:09:36plenty of fans out and about in the san francisco area
01:09:42and not bad being able to yeah i mean they live in the dream really san francisco
01:09:47and then head up to the pacific northwest for
01:09:51vancouver it's a pretty good combination of uh of cities and places
01:09:56and here they are going toe-to-toe with another premier league team for the second time in four
01:10:00nights
01:10:06yeah this is what we've seen a couple times just when chelsea's been a little sloppy defensively
01:10:11they've just had to make some fouls to stop the counter-attack but we saw that as that first half
01:10:17progressed as the players got a little bit more comfortable knocked off you know some of that rust
01:10:22all of these players being their their first match of this pre-season for chelsea and
01:10:28not surprising that they're maybe not as clean as they would like in possession in particular
01:10:38certainly the uh fluidity we saw from chelsea at times in the first half has
01:10:43not been there but sterling trying to do something about that now
01:10:47he's going to go for the byline clip cross as well just overheated slightly but still they
01:10:53if they can do more of keeping this type of possession winning second third balls combining
01:10:57in midfield but then again we saw once again mcclain now dropping back into his more i guess
01:11:04role that we're used to seeing him in and then more of a left back role and doing a great job
01:11:12of just blocking off that one two inside the 18 but one thing they don't want to do rexham is just
01:11:18allow chelsea two or three opportunities to put crosses in the box and and be able to put levels
01:11:25of sustained pressure on
01:11:30midway point at the second half here in santa clara you can catch another international club
01:11:36friendly on friday esbn plus 7 30 eastern the time liverpool taking on that rail batiste
01:11:49we will go back down the west coast casey and i for uh arsenal against manchester united that's
01:11:54so far looking forward to that very much on saturday night
01:11:57as we do the tour of the the giant west coast nfl stadiums here at levi's after uh
01:12:07phil parkinson had rung the changes that's what their lineup looks like at the moment
01:12:11dobson is still out there he's played from the start mcclean is an absolute
01:12:14beast case he won't come off the pitch will he at the age of 35 well there's always those guys
01:12:19you know that are just going to be a little bit more aggressive but he's got a lot of
01:12:24at the age of 35 well there's always those guys you know that are just they're they're
01:12:27just runners and they're just natural runners and mcclean has always been that guy and so
01:12:32it doesn't surprise me that he has then dropped back into this position where he
01:12:37was asked to do a roll in the first half higher up the pitch
01:12:41here's wesley for farner
01:12:56missed all of last year
01:12:57there's a busy old treatment room around cobham the chelsea training center last year
01:13:16some of those players
01:13:19now becoming available almost like new signings for enzo maresca they haven't
01:13:24done a huge amount of business by their lofty standards on this
01:13:30off season so far still plenty of time to go in it of course
01:13:33jewsbury hall is one new rival we haven't seen yet
01:13:38that's nicely done by rexham and they're on the way again jack marriott on his left foot oh
01:13:43it's a great finish how about that
01:13:47that's
01:13:51the story just keeps becoming more and more unbelievable welcome to santa clara
01:14:05well this is showing enzo marasco that maybe his squad isn't as strong as he thinks it is
01:14:12you know making these kind of changes getting sloppy and then getting punished for it
01:14:17twice now in the second half and you know this starts off okay
01:14:23but then coming inside good challenge for marriott who started it then the giveaway but
01:14:28the shape is it's just for fauna doesn't quite come over enough great challenge
01:14:38and then to win the ball back and then from that angle it's not a it's it's a pretty good angle
01:14:46and marriott coming on just a few minutes ago but what a great touch you always love it seeing the
01:14:54striker work hard to help win the ball back and then get on the end of the play and finish it
01:14:59off at the other end so great work for marriott super finish wasn't it from a player who really
01:15:05only played a bit part last season 17 appearances only one goal in league two but he's a player
01:15:11with goals in his past he was the league one golden boot winner back in 2018 also scored a
01:15:17playoff goal in the championship for derby in 2019 so he knows where the back of the net is
01:15:24but chelsea shape has been horrible since they made the substitutions at halftime and
01:15:31rexham have made them pave with the indecision and players not running with players and yeah
01:15:36that's the look of a manager that just realized he's in for he's got some work to do in this pre-season
01:15:46enzo maresca the 44 year old italian pep guardiola
01:15:51singing his praises saying he is going to be an extraordinary manager
01:15:55well this would be an extraordinary start for him if it stays the way it is albeit
01:16:02in a game that matters not does it but in terms of league in terms of league points
01:16:10maybe in the pr perception battle it's a different story but as that corner comes in
01:16:15i mean the english press is really oh they're gonna have a field day after sports yes
01:16:21they'll react very calmly very
01:16:24very
01:16:31well let's have a look again at this finish and barry
01:16:33probably get an assist as well for the tackle he made
01:16:40yeah and with no real no real help after the quick turnover
01:16:45really had no other option but to strike and he struck it so cleanly
01:16:50back across bergstrom and it was it was a nice finish
01:17:02so what can chelsea do
01:17:07angelo on the ball
01:17:08angelo on the ball
01:17:16sterling facing that bank of two with his way inside
01:17:24disappointing end product from malo gusto yeah it wasn't even close
01:17:30and again it's hard to it's hard to like said be critical knowing that they've
01:17:34come off a plane in the first match and he knew instantly that it was a a poor ball
01:17:40but this is where i want to see i think probably the most i want to see chelsea see
01:17:44how they can press rexham and not allow outlets and not allow them to be able to play through we
01:17:51saw that for large stretches of the first half that that's what they did very well they didn't
01:17:55allow rexham into any kind of uh sustained possession and and really they knew that their
01:18:02pace in that back line was going to allow them to press high and be able to recover but
01:18:09the shape has been woeful to start this second half from chelsea defensively and rexham and
01:18:14punished him now i'm looking for a response as i'm sure the management is as well and again two
01:18:18or three just opportunities to play one twos on the top of the 18 and the final ball just is not good
01:18:32oh i talked about trevor chalabar being left behind for chelsea of course they have other
01:18:41players who only recently finished their national team summers like enzo fernandez
01:18:47connor gallagher mark kukurela cole palmer of course
01:18:53there is england exploits so there's yet more options for enzo marasco to be mulling over
01:19:00and george thompson with another challenge and probably basically saying look i don't want to
01:19:04send you off with two yellow cards in a in a pre-season friendly so let's just let's just
01:19:09be careful to finish this off the chelsea players are going come on how's that not a yellow card
01:19:17and then this is what happens yeah a lot of times they say hey let's just just just take
01:19:22them off just get him out of there that's the last hurrah for dobson
01:19:29and he's going to make way for a much younger harry ashfield
01:19:40harry ashfield a childhood fan of the club he's been with them since 2015
01:19:47a second year scholar
01:20:04action porn
01:20:11full debut at the end of the season it's a rough start hasn't it for angelo
01:20:18brazilian under 20 international
01:20:2932 724 announced as the attendance tonight in levi's stadium
01:20:38just being a going concern for all exactly 10 years this is marriott on his way again looking
01:20:45to wreak more havoc they have a man over here again rexham just took too much time they had it
01:20:52what a what a shame for rexham is that opened up again with just poor defending just ball
01:20:57watching and chillwell once again just being overrun 2v1 and and then winning a challenge
01:21:04and running it again here we go again with dolby near post they got the shot away good safe
01:21:10by bergstrom needed to be but action pong again left everybody on side just not in connection with
01:21:16the back line and just the shape defensively continues in another run that time delivering
01:21:28it to mclean rexham are looking for the knockout punch here and chelsea are on the ropes
01:21:34what an extraordinary stuff
01:21:42and indy cannon had made a nice run that wasn't found
01:21:47but yeah those runs from deeper in midfield there's just no marking from chelsea
01:21:59again look at that good play down there right from ryan barnett who won the ball initially and
01:22:03then it was dalby on his way and in marriott just again i mean it's it's a simple ball but
01:22:12just so slow from action pong to to come across and get good defensive shape that
01:22:20marriott beats him and it's a decent save from bergstrom in the end but
01:22:26yeah that's a worrisome that this shape that chelsea have put out defensively this second half
01:22:33and they looked in control in the first afternoon they chanced they did yeah that's the first team
01:22:43is out there without ever being totally dominant rexham were able to battle and keep it close and
01:22:51if they've been rewarded in the second half they've made the most of their opportunities again
01:22:56they're going to defend as if their lives depended upon it and try and pull off a real shock here
01:23:05chelsea have just over 10 minutes left to do something about it
01:23:09would not be the start that enzo maresca was looking for
01:23:14he's sterling
01:23:18off kilter looking for angelo but they have it back chelsea in a promising position
01:23:26yeah i just tried to overplay there wasn't any reason for rexham to try to play there and
01:23:31in the end they got away with it yeah will boil the center back breathing a sigh of relief
01:23:38backlink play from here but it breaks kindly for the blues here here's angelo on the left foot
01:23:42angelo still
01:23:47you know chelsea have finally woken up i think in this second half yeah gusto
01:23:55chip will make it
01:23:56angelo keeping it low and the shot the side foot the equalizer
01:24:03for the choke wall as chelsea get back on level terms but what did we talk about ager and we
01:24:10talked about the fact that chelsea are not going to be able to get back on level terms
01:24:14and they're not going to be able to get back on level terms and they're not going to be able to
01:24:18cool as chelsea get back on level terms but what did we talk about ager and we talked about
01:24:26one thing rexham couldn't allow is second and third chances from chelsea and
01:24:32two or three opportunities rexham had to clear their lines they didn't do it
01:24:35and the sustained pressure finally gave way and as it opened up it was just a simple pass
01:24:42into the back of the net
01:24:46leslie elga choco yet took her maker down on the ground for a while as this attack started to unfold
01:24:58that line has to come up very quickly and they just when that challenge came in
01:25:05nobody could react quick enough they got stuck too deep six players in the defensive line and
01:25:11when the channel opened to be able to just pass into the back of the net it was taken advantage of
01:25:16and what will the reaction now be with a very tired with a very tired rexham even though there
01:25:21was a lot of changes made but there's still work to be done as we mentioned right before that goal
01:25:28happened it seemed like there was a little bit of a wake-up from chelsea some tackles started coming
01:25:33in they started to press the ball heavier in midfield winning the ball and and then creating
01:25:39two or three little turnovers deep in the half and angelo just takes his eye off the ball
01:25:46it's been a rough first outing for the young brazilian
01:25:52phil parkinson's going to make a couple of switches to try and
01:25:56stem some of this tide that is flowing against his team at the moment antony ford
01:26:01it's going to be one of those that comes on aaron james i believe he's going to be another
01:26:07and finally james mclean is ushered off the field i'm sure he didn't want to go
01:26:25let's go back to the equalizer again from leslie oguchukwu french under 21 international
01:26:33he might have been with the french olympic team today who opened up against the u.s.
01:26:38he made the provisional squad but wasn't included in thierry henry's final olympic team
01:26:47you see when that little channel opened up it just was the simplest of just passes into the
01:26:52back of the net but again there's another there's a good challenge there
01:26:58and that's what we didn't see for the first 30 minutes of this second half
01:27:01and then it almost took that go-ahead goal from rexham just to to wake up these this chelsea side
01:27:08and wesley fafana is like all right you're not going to turn me this time
01:27:12if i don't win the ball i'm gonna win the man and mariette's slow to get up
01:27:20look of steely determination in the face of wesley fafana only played
01:27:25five games for chelsea in two seasons of course big part of the leicester city team
01:27:31that won the fa cup against chelsea
01:27:36it was three years ago now it's a dangerous ball across
01:27:40face the midfield andy cannon did well they did very well
01:27:48maria proved to be a handful
01:27:56rexham players didn't like the decision which was a chelsea free kick as fafana
01:28:01stayed down you can see chelsea's next game with us on saturday they travel north to notre dame
01:28:09to take on celtic so we go from welsh opposition to scottish saturday 4 p.m eastern on abc
01:28:26and from then on the teams just get bigger and bigger for them
01:28:32us tour club america man city and real madrid to come
01:28:39they never do things lightly ac chelsea especially when it comes to well there's an expectation of
01:28:45who they're supposed to be and who they have been and when you get opportunities to
01:28:51increase your brand against giant teams in america then you take advantage of it
01:28:56but so far it is i think it's going to be it's going to look a little different let's say by the
01:29:00end of these five games as it has today so a lot of work is going to have to be done
01:29:07if chelsea are going to be competitive in the premier league from the start
01:29:10this season a lot of spotlight will be on new coach enzo maresca
01:29:22sterling tries to provide him with a bright ending to the game well he's
01:29:25won himself a corner a really good change of pace once again from sterling
01:29:30he just glides past defenders at times and again a very good recovering challenge
01:29:39that's when you have help that comes across and then
01:29:44nice tackle
01:29:49it was aaron james that came all the way across to to make that challenge
01:29:56so
01:30:00rexham chance for the crowd as chelsea to make the most of this set piece
01:30:07well defended by rexham who could turn defense into attack here maria has turned back into trouble
01:30:16and now chelsea can reset themselves angelo
01:30:18oh right footed along the ground better from him this time just eluding everyone
01:30:25andre santos giving chase
01:30:35andre santos who started last year on loan but not in a forest
01:30:41so enzo maresca you look at the last six years for chelsea
01:30:50casey sari lampard tucul potter lampard again pochettino stable and now maresca following suit
01:31:01so
01:31:08trick will make it make things happen action pong
01:31:15now that would have redressed the balance of his evening a little bit had that dipped under the bar
01:31:23yeah we talked about again it's those those moments where
01:31:26rexham need to get out a little bit quicker not allow the second and third opportunities
01:31:33and that's your poem finds himself open outside the 18 decent strike always rising
01:31:40enzo maresca by the way casey the seventh italian manager of hat they've had since
01:31:462000 it's the timeline of the recent managers but he's also following on from
01:31:52vialli ranieri angelotti di mateo conte and sari
01:31:59there are long lists everywhere we look at chelsea
01:32:08only jose mourinho has lasted longer than two years in the chelsea hot seats
01:32:13in the last two and a half decades and he's did it twice
01:32:22so battling work from amanda broha
01:32:29the man who's played more international football than he has club football broha
01:32:35albanian first ever albanian to score in the premier league
01:32:39trying to get on the end of this cross now and broha nearly there
01:32:44good work from boyle yeah boyle did just enough in the end adrian otherwise it
01:32:48very easily could have been a winner
01:32:56rexham scrapping and clawing to try and hold on to their second consecutive draw
01:33:01against premier league opponents in the united states
01:33:07they'll face mls opposition at the end of their rex coast tour
01:33:12this weekend as they take on the vancouver whitecaps
01:33:19so
01:33:24only two minutes of additional time so rexham are nearly there callum burton
01:33:28one of their new arrivals been in goal in the second half will take his time here
01:33:36so
01:33:44marriott lurking but for farner
01:33:49aware of the danger
01:34:05so
01:34:07time for one last hurrah here
01:34:14sterling
01:34:20good work really good work from chukwu omega and now angelo needs a good cross
01:34:24can he find the right delivery keeps it low and short instead
01:34:29and slightly overhead yeah
01:34:30so
01:34:34broha was the intended target
01:34:41chill well coolly done
01:34:50well any way you look at it casey a dramatic improvement from a year ago and that's what
01:34:54rob mccullen he was talking about at halftime a year ago it was five nil chelsea and javel hill
01:35:00well you can just see how the defensive shape is is is the understanding to drop back into a five
01:35:08to clog space centrally when you have the opportunity to to press not necessarily high
01:35:15up the pitch but in little areas in midfield and then attack on the counter understand your
01:35:21opposition understand that you can't open yourself up because if you do you'll get punished and i
01:35:27think it's it's been very smart now it'll be different i think against the vancouver white
01:35:33caps in in the match before they head back to wales but they head up north of the border with
01:35:40a second consecutive draw against premier league opposition all smiles in the end for enzo marescu
01:35:47whose side saves some face but delight on that man's face and why not wrecks him a goal down
01:35:53at halftime leading 2-1 until late into this one in the end a 2-2 draw preserving some dignity
01:36:00for chelsea they will move on and look to get stronger next time out against celtic but we
01:36:07reach a conclusion here with the final scoreline reading chelsea 2
01:36:11rexham 2 and we'll be back one more time to tie a bow on proceedings here from santa clara