By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — Football before a packed Kenan Stadium is nothing new.
But when 50,596 fans filled the stadium Wednesday, it was anything but normal and a huge night for soccer fans. With the turf traded for temporary natural grass, the football was English-style and played in the oppressive July heat.
UNC’s role was only that of a gracious host, renting out the stadium to the FC Series promoters, who paid to install grass for the playing surface. The field — or should we say pitch? — looked beautiful, and you couldn’t tell it resulted from 30 truckloads of rolls of grass because no seams were evident.
This field held up much better than the temporary grass rolled out in San Diego for UNC’s Holiday Bowl game last season that made footing an adventure.
In a matchup analogous to the Tar Heels playing a lower-level FCS team, mighty Chelsea FC of the Premier League — known as the Blues — rolled to a 5–0 victory in a friendly against Wrexham, despite being short-handed, as both kicked off United States tours.
This year, the Red Dragons earned a promotion to EFL League Two, three leagues lower than the Premier League.
“I thought we had chances; we just weren’t clinical enough in that final third,” Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson said. “It just showed the difference in levels, where every time Chelsea had a shot, it ended up in the back of the net. That’s the difference in levels — that final third quality.”
Given the heat, which was much worse than the players are used to in London and Wales, there was a time out in both halves to give the players water breaks.
“Always difficult the first game, 50,000 people or more,” said Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino, making his coaching debut with the team. “Always is difficult for them first game in the preseason. The conditions of course, you can feel it was hot.”
Even though the game didn’t go well for Parkinson, he enjoyed his time in Chapel Hill.
“It’s been it’s been incredible,” Parkinson said. “We’ve had a great few days here, been really, really well looked-after and received by everybody and playing in front of the 50,000 tonight in a fantastic setting like this. It’s a great occasion for us.”
Just across the street from where Erin Matson scored numerous goals for the UNC field hockey team, it was somehow appropriate that Chelsea got two goals from a Maatsen.
In only the third minute, Ian Maatsen, the Man of the Match, took a feed from forward Nicolas Jackson. The 21-year-old Dutch left back fired a left-footed shot from the center of the box easily past goalkeeper Ben Foster and into the bottom-left corner of the net for a beautiful goal.
It was Maatsen again in the 42nd minute, slipping a left-footed shot just inside the right post off of a pass from midfielder Carney Chukwuemeka.
Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher hammered a shot from outside the box to the left side of the net past a diving Foster in the 80th minute to make it 3–0.
It only got worse for Wrexham from there.
Ten minutes later, Christopher Nkunku rocketed in a shot from the center of the box. Left back Ben Chilwell scored from the left side of the six-yard box for the fifth goal in the final minute.
NOTES — The Clef Hangers, Carolina’s oldest a cappella group, sang the national anthem. … UNC women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance, who was interviewed over the PA at halftime, was on hand at midfield for the pregame coin toss. … A portion of the proceeds for each ticket were donated to the Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Clinic at UNC Children’s Hospital. During the second half, Unified Events presented a check for an estimated donation of $150,000 to Dr. Stuart Gold, chief of the pediatric hematology and oncology division. … Just as seems to be the case for many Carolina football games, the highest percentage of empty seats were in the Blue Zone behind the goal on the east side of the field. … Chelsea was without defenders Wesley Fofana (ACL injury), Reece James (illness), Benoit Badiashile (hamstring), striker Armando Broja (knee) and goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli. … Wrexham left for Los Angeles after the game for its Saturday friendly against the L.A. Galaxy II. That contest, its July 26 match in San Diego against Manchester United and the July 28 in Philadelphia against Philadelphia Union II are all in MLS stadiums. … The Blues play four more games in the U.S., all in NFL stadiums: against Brighton on Saturday in Philadelphia, Newcastle United on July 26 in Atlanta and Fulham on July 30 in suburban Washington. … One huge advantage Wrexham owned was corner kicks, earning seven compared to none for Chelsea.
Chelsea 5, Wrexham 0
Photo courtesy of FC Series
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