Manchester City F.C. and Chelsea F.C. fans cheer on their respective teams prior to Saturday’s FC Series match at Ohio Stadium. Credit: Sebastian Petrou Griffith
For the first time ever, FC Series soccer turned the Shoe blue.
Manchester City F.C. defeated Chelsea F.C. 4-2 Saturday night at Ohio Stadium in the final match of FC Series play, also known as the Florida Cup, ending Man City’s four-game tour of the United States.
The contest saw record attendance, drawing in 71,280 fans — a record high for FC Series match attendance, as well as the largest crowd of any Manchester City or Chelsea preseason U.S. tour.
“Fantastic,” Chelsea F.C. manager Enzo Maresca said of the atmosphere in Ohio Stadium. “Today was probably the day with the most fans in the stadium, and we had two or three days with the fans here. The environment was nice; it was good.”
The FC Series is a national expansion of the Florida Cup, an international showcase first held in Florida in January 2015. The event has hosted various international club teams from Europe, North America and South America, according to a FC Series email statement.
Ricardo Villar, CEO of FC Series, said the Florida Cup team works hard each year to build relationships with international clubs and evaluate each organization with a thorough selection process.
“[Manchester] City was one that we visited in 2021 to have a conversation with them,” Villar said. “We understood we were admirers of their professionalism, how they’ve been running the market, their social media, etc. We know ours is strong as well, so it’s a good combination.”
This year, the FC Series hosted Man City’s tour of the United States. These included announced sellouts versus AC Milan of Serie A at Yankee Stadium, Barcelona of La Liga at Camping World Stadium in Orlando and the tour-opening game against Celtic F.C. of the Scottish Premiership at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
FC Series 2024 also held two international friendlies for Chelsea, which featured a 4-1 loss to Celtic at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana as well as a 3-0 shutout of Club América at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Overall, more than 200,000 U.S. fans have attended FC Series matches this summer, according to a FC Series email statement.
Villar said top international talent plays a crucial role in the relationship between American fans and soccer viewership, stating that stars can bring in large profits to the soccer market.
“Fans like stars, and stars move the game nowadays,” Villar said. “The stars are in big leagues, and the big leagues are right here in the FC Series. Americans understand that they’re big fans of it, and MLS keeps going in the right direction. You see how they brought in Messi and look at what that did to the market.”
The stars of Manchester City and Chelsea certainly didn’t disappoint in Columbus.
The night’s biggest surprise was Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, whose appearance was initially uncertain due to minor muscle issues. In the end, Haaland started the match and logged nearly 80 minutes of play.
Haaland and Manchester City fired on all cylinders from the very start of the match. In the third minute, Man City applied early pressure; soon after, a deflected pass from Chelsea led to a foul on Haaland by defender Levi Colwill in the penalty box.
The Norwegian star nailed the penalty kick with a left-footer to the goal’s bottom-right corner, putting Manchester City up 1-0.
Just a minute later, Man City forced another Chelsea turnover in opposing territory. As another bad pass dropped in front of Haaland, he dribbled to the center of the box before turning to strike a right-footed shot to the goal’s bottom-right corner, giving Manchester City a 2-0 lead just five minutes into the match.
“First off, I think unless, in the first five minutes, we conceded two goals, the game was good,” Maresca said. “It’s a very strange game because you plan the game in one way and then you concede goals and then it changes completely.”
Still, Manchester City didn’t slow down.
Just 10 minutes into second-half play, wing Oscar Bobb received a pass from midfielder James McAtee, dancing past a Chelsea defender with a left-footed move that provided barely enough space to squeak a shot into the goal’s bottom-right corner, putting City up 3-0.
Less than a minute later, a through ball from McAtee gave Haaland yet another one-on-one opportunity against keeper Robert Sánchez, which he would uncork into the bottom left corner to give Manchester City a 4-0 lead.
Chelsea struck back twice in the second half, with star forward Raheem Sterling netting a left-footed screamer off of a cross from wing Noni Madueke in the 59th minute.
Madueke also scored on a breakaway in the match’s 88th minute on a deep pass from defensive midfielder Roméo Lavia, narrowing Chelsea’s deficit to two with a shot to the goal’s far post.
Chelsea’s final two goals ultimately weren’t enough to make up for its earlier mistakes, as Manchester City emerged victorious 4-2.
“I want to give you advice to the promoters for this event,” Manchester City F.C. manager Josep “Pep” Guardiola said. “We lost 4-3 against Celtic, 2-2 against Barcelona and six goals here today, so every game we score a good goal. If they hire us for next season, people will be happy we score a lot of goals, we concede a lot of goals and the people come to see that.”
