Chelsea’s pre-season got off to a losing start late last night when the Major League Soccer All-Stars defeated Jose Mourinho’s side 1-0 in Chicago.
Mourinho stuck to his plan and gave the majority of the squad a run out, including new signings Michael Ballack, Andriy Shevchenko, John Obi Mikel and Salomon Kalou. But with Major League Soccer currently in the middle of its domestic campaign the All-Stars were much the sharper side from the start.
The game was decided in the 70th minute when some lapse defending from a throw-in allowed Dwayne De Rosario to shoot from the edge of the area past new ‘keeper Henrique Hilario – who had only been on the pitch six minutes after replacing Carlo Cudicini.
The match was marred by an injury to Joe Cole very early in the second half. Cole had come on as a substitute at half time and had only been on the pitch five minutes when an innocuous tackle in the middle of the pitch forced him off with suspected knee ligament damage. He could miss the start of the Premiership.
Selected match reports: Official Chelsea FC Website; Sky Sports; New York Times.
Chelsea’s next pre-season game is against Feyenoord on Tuesday.
