The Club World Cup's Surprise Champions 🏆
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Happy Monday. In this edition of The Raven, Rog congratulates Chelsea on their decimation of PSG and recounts his experience of doing the coin toss before the Club World Cup final. Sign up for The Raven here.
What a day it is to be a Chelsea fan. The Club World Cup is over, and I was there in person at MetLife to witness one of the most remarkable tournament victories since Denmark won the Euros in 1992 or Greece in 2004. Going into this final, Chelsea appeared to be lambs to the slaughter against the quadruple-seeking PSG machine who had just eviscerated Real Madrid 4-0, and leaked just one goal all tournament. But the beauty of football is that, over the course of 90 minutes, anything can happen. And this team who were lambasted as “Blue Billion Pound Bottlejobs” last season are now Champions of the World.
How did they do it? Cole Palmer unfurled a transcendent performance, consisting of insouciance, potency and ethereality in equal parts. Chelsea’s game plan was stunning – their ability to break PSG’s press, and with it their will. Their defensive organization, admirable. Robert Sanchez had a blip of a stunning game. In the heat of the New Jersey swamplands, PSG’s vaunted dynastic aura simply melted away. 🏆🛴
ii. I was surreally given the honor of doing the coin toss for the game. It is a remarkable thing to do – to take the field amidst 82,000 bellowing fans, the pomp and glitz of the pre-game machinations, and stand beside Michael Buffer as he is about to do Buffer things. As I took the field, I was overwhelmed by a sense of wonder that in 370 days, the men’s World Cup final will be in that very place on American soil. I flipped the coin with Reece James and Marquinhos and felt the power of the moment, and the enormity of the footballing tidal wave about to sweep our nation. After a Gold Cup absent of American fans, it was immense to see and meet so many reveling in this moment. Soccer, America’s sport of the future no longer — that future is now, and we are all living it. 🪙
I want to thank my friends at Coca-Cola for giving us this opportunity. We have unleashed this beautiful series on the rollercoaster of World Cup emotions with them and this Keegan-Michael Key piece is one of my favorite things we have made this year.
📝 How are you feeling, Chelsea fans? You can now sound off (and gloat) in our Men in Blazers Discord community. We want to create the single best place on the internet to connect around not just football, but life. Free to join, and you can sign up right here.
iii. We filmed with Thierry Henry on Friday and it was immense. Here is a taste. Thierry is such a reflective gent. He really thinks about what he says, and expounds upon it at length, so to listen to him talking about his experience of football’s growth here in the United States, whether this is Arsenal’s year, and his own legacy was a total blast. That conversation drops on our pod and YouTube this FRIDAY. Va Va Voom. 👑🇫🇷
iv. Everton are doing a LIVE SHOW with us in New York City and a batch of new tickets have just been made available. Grab them fast and watch me on stage with my heroes, David Moyes, and a gent I am in love with, I can’t deny, amongst others…Tickets available here. 💙
v. Last night was the final one with Rory Smith on his New York tour. My friend flies back on that little-known JFK-Harrogate flight tonight, where he will revert to his Terry’s Chocolate Orange-only diet. I have loved having him here this week – it was such a blast to meet so many of you in person at the fantastic Michelob Ultra Pitchside Club where we were like footballing Celine Dions as artists in residence. Reuniting Clint Dempsey and Jurgen Klinsmann was a slice of magic. Ror is going to come back out soon and wants to travel somewhere beyond the obvious in the U.S. for a live show… meninblazers@gmail.com is our email for suggestions.
-Roger Bennett