We are back with a new wrinkle in club soccer. The last time they played the Club World Cup three years ago, only seven teams took part. But this year, a greatly expanded version of the tournament features 24 teams. The games being held in the U.S. serve as a dry run for the organizers, who will be responsible for the actual World Cup being held here next summer. After the first round of matches, let’s see who’s up and who’s down.
Club World Cup winners
Al-Hilal
Whoa day. Al-Hilal's 1-1 draw against Real Madrid has to be the greatest result in their history, no disrespect intended to the Saudi league. (Actually, a little disrespect intended.) Kylian Mbappé ultimately missed the 1-1 draw, and Real Madrid confirmed he was taken to the hospital after being diagnosed with gastroenteritis.
But this was a match that Real’s reserves should have won going away, but the Riyadh-based Blue Waves did not quail even though los merengues played many of their regular starters.
Al-Hilal could have won it with some better finishing off the chances that Real’s defense (which included new signing Trent Alexander-Arnold) gifted them. Meanwhile, Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine “Bono” Bounou preserved the draw with his save of Federico Valverde’s 90th-minute penalty and once again showed that he’s too good for the Saudi league — some European team needs to make a Godfather offer for him. Al-Hilal lost the 2022 Club World Cup final to Real Madrid, and this piece of payback comes with many more people watching.
Paris St.-Germain
The newly crowned Champions League winners picked up right where they left off in a 4-0 tonking of Atlético Madrid. With both teams fielding full-strength starting lineups, you can’t say that they weren’t taking the match seriously. The scoreline may have flattered the Parisians, as Atleti played them even for large portions of the game, but the clinical finishing of Fabián Ruiz, Vitinha and Senny Mayulu allowed PSG to take advantage of their opponents’ miscues.
Mamelodi Sundowns
The most successful club in South African league history got a win on the world stage over Ulsan HD that was more lopsided than the 1-0 scoreline suggests. Well done to the guys from Pretoria.
Goalkeepers in Al-Ahly vs. Inter Miami
The goalless draw between these teams was down to the guys between the sticks, as Inter clung on for dear life through the opening stages thanks to some brilliant stops by Oscar Ustari. The tide turned after halftime as Inter found their offense, and so it was down to Al-Ahly’s Mohamed El Shenawy to preserve the draw for the Egyptian club.
Club World Cup losers
Everyone who watched Bayern Munich vs. Auckland City
This game was Exhibit A for people who say that this tournament is just congesting an already stuffed-up fixture list. We didn’t need this game to know that Bayern was a better team than the New Zealand club representing Oceania, and even Bayern’s fans who happen to live in this country didn’t learn anything from seeing their favorite team in person after they posted 10 goals on the Navy Blues.
Ticket scalpers
Other people may pretend that there aren’t whole rows of empty seats at these games, but I won’t deny the evidence that the TV cameras are sending straight to my eyeballs. The matches that don’t involve teams from the Americas are not selling, and even the Mexican side Pachuca were playing in front of a sparse crowd here in a neighboring country. (Of course, they might have had more fans had they not been playing in Cincinnati, more than 1,500 miles from their hometown.)
Maybe attendance will pick up once the weaker teams get winnowed out, but right now, the scalpers will probably give you tickets if you just do a little dance for them.
Non-European teams
As if we didn’t know it already, the European clubs demonstrated their superiority over their counterparts from the Western Hemisphere, with nobody from America, Mexico, Brazil or Argentina picking up a win over the clubs from Europe.
They managed four points, with Boca Juniors drawing Benfica, Fluminense and Borussia Dortmund going scoreless as well as Palmeiras and Porto, and Monterrey managing a 1-1 result against Inter Milan. These will all have ramifications for those clubs in group standings, but a win is what’s needed to show the skeptics that there’s a point to this tourney. If they keep playing the Club World Cup like this, eventually somebody will break through. The FIFA bigwigs would like that to happen this year, though.
Clément Lenglet and Alexander Sørloth
Maybe Atlético still would have lost, but the French defender’s second yellow card came with his team only down 2-0, and the Norwegian shanked Giuliano Simeone’s cross way over the bar when he had an open goal to shoot at. Instead, the four-goal loss means they have to worry about goal differential as they chase the wins they need over Seattle Sounders and Botafogo to advance.