Pre-season: Chelsea v Thailand All Stars

Chelsea v Thailand All Stars, Sunday 25th July 2011

Starting XI

Cech, Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry, Van Aanholt, Lampard, Obi Mikel, McEachran, Anelka, Sturridge, Torres (4-3-3)

Subs

Turnbull, Hilario, Blackman, Cole, Benayoun, Drogba, Malouda, Zhirkov, Ferreira, Kalou, Alex, Bertrand, Clifford, Chalobah, Rajkovic

With the team training in monsoon conditions yesterday, the blue skies and sun was out for today’s match in Bangkok.

The opening 5 minutes saw some great runs from McEachran and a lot more positive passing from the whole team.

The Action

4minutes: Early corner won by Van Aanholt, taken by Lampard but missed by Sturridge.

8minutes: Great run from Thailand easily taken by Cech.

9minutes: Strike on target from Anelka – comfortably taken by Thai GK.

11minutes: Free Kick in Thailand’s favour, another easy collection for Cech.

17minutes: Great play between Torres & Anelka. Corner won and taken by Lampard, into the box for a Mikel header, well collected by the GK.

19minutes: Brilliant run by Torres, taken down in the penalty box by 3 Thai players, penalty not awarded when it should have been.

Anelka has made some great runs but a few bad passes to the box. Much more attacking play from the whole team than in previous games.

AVB & DiMatteo very vocal during this game from the sidelines which is great to see and is evident from the play on the pitch.

GOAL!!!! 38minutes: Brilliant trademark strike from Lampard which blasted past the Thai GK.

Thailand All Stars 0 – Chelsea 1

Does not appear to be as much atmosphere in this venue as there was in the previous stadium. Plenty of Vuvuzelas but not a lot of singing.

HALF TIME: Overall for the 1st half many more highlights than in previous games, better attacking play in the first 30 minutes. Great movement throughout from Torres but again little finishing opportunities.

Chairman, Ron Gourley spoke to Chelsea TV during the half time break and commented on the pitch conditions which were far from ideal.

“Here to play, here to stay”

“Great feeling in the camp”

McEachran has had a really great first half and will hopefully continue this during the second. He is playing further up-field and picking up some great passes, he has relaxed a great deal since the last game and is having some wonderful movement on the ball.

Van Annholt has been really eager throughout the first half but has had some negative passes.

Changes made during half time:

Cech off – Hilario on

GOAL!!!! 49minutes: Sloppy strike by Bosingwa was played stayed into the hands of the Thai GK who miss handed the ball and hit it straight into his own net.

Thailand All Stars 0 – Chelsea 2

GOAL!!!! 52minutes: Ivanovic played a great ball all the way down the field between him and Lampard and a great strike from Ivanovic flies past the Thai GK.

Thailand All Stars 0 – Chelsea 3

54minutes: 4 subs made by the Thai side.
Chance for the Thailand side which is saved by Hilario.

57minutes: Thailand free kick brought down by McEachran, more great passes from him in the second half.

59minutes: Thailand All Stars have a shot on target which is saved in spectacular fashion by Hilario. And only a minute later, Hilario saves again.

60minutes: 8 changes made to the Chelsea side –

Off – Lampard, Anelka, Torres, Terry, Van Aanholt, Bosingwa, Sturridge, McEachran.
On – Drogba, Kalou, Rajkovic, Ferreira, Benayoun, Cole, Malouda, Zhirkov

62minutes: Another great save from Hilario, that 3 brilliant saves for the Chelsea GK in 5 minutes. Great play by him.

66minutes: Chance for a goal from Zhirkov which is cleared by the Thailand GK.

The fluidity in the subs sinse the substitutions has been evident. Kalou having a few good changes but needs to be quicker on the ball.

GOAL!!!! 72minutes: Outstanding strike from Malouda which hits the back of the net after a threw ball from Cole who is having a strong second half.

Thailand All Stars 0 – Chelsea 4

76minutes: Brilliant passing between Malouda and Cole again, pass to Drogba who is standing infront of the goal and goes for a chip in but goal is called off side.

Chelsea subs
Off – Obi Mikel & Ivanovic
On – Clifford & Chalobah

The tempo dies down over the final 10 minutes as expected as 4 goals up and after a much faster passed game.

81minutes: Drogba header and great chance is cleared by the Thailand All Stars GK.
Clifford is working hard and is solid in defence and has a good 15minutes of play.

88minutes: Challenge on Kalou which is a straight red card but isn’t given. Kalou is up and playing on, appears to be fine.

Full time

Thailand All Stars 0 – Chelsea 4

Overall a really solid performance from Chelsea and a marked improvement from Thursday’s game. All players appeared to be dealing with the conditions better and uped their games. AVB should be pleased with this performance.

A few outstanding performances for us were from McEachran, Sturridge & Malouda. Really great also to see such a variety of players get a good amount of time.

We are looking forward to the next game on Wednesday against the Hong Kong Champions, Kitchee.

By Clare
twitter @chelsea4girls