Chelsea have four wins in four this preseason, scoring fifteen goals to the opposition's two, but, as Jose Mourinho has pointed out, those wins are worth a grand total of zero points, so we shouldn't get too carried away even after dispatching teams like Inter Milan without a problem. It's still cool that we could do a Milanese double, though -- AC Milan are the other half of our next friendly, which is taking place in New York on Sunday.
Here's how you can watch!
Date/Time: August 4th, 2013 at 6:30 pm EDT (August 4th at 11:30 pm BST; August 5th at 4:00 am IST)
Opponent/SB Nation Blog: AC Milan (Serie A, 3rd place finish in 2012/13), The Offside AC Milan
Venue: MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ, USA
Television: You can find the specifics of who is covering the game in your location here. It doesn't look as though there'll be live television coverage in either the UK or India, but in the USA you can pick between ESPN Deportes or Fox Soccer Channel.
Streaming: Chelsea TV will be streaming the game live from the UK and Ireland (although bear in mind it'll be in the middle of the night). Meanwhile, American subscribers to Fox Soccer 2 Go will get to watch the match, both live and archived.
Milan Squad: The Serie A side have brought the following players with them for their US tour:
Marco Amelia, Christian Abbiati, Gabriel, Mattia De Sciglio. Philippe Mexes, Salamon Bartosz, Cristian Zapata, Daniele Bonera, Dídac Vilá, Luca Antonini, Cristian Zaccardo, Bartosz Salamon, Sulley Muntari, Antonio Nocerino, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Bakaye Traoré, Riccardo Montolivo, Urby Emanuelson, Nigel De Jong, Bryan Cristante, Rodney Strasser, Riccardo Saponara, Robinho, Giampaolo Pazzini, Mbaye Niang, Mario Balotelli, Nnamdi Oduamadi, Stephan El Shaarawy, Giacomo Beretta.
Chelsea Squad: Chelsea brought the following group to the US:
Petr Cech, Mark Schwarzer, Henrique Hilario, Jamal Blackman, Branislav Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, David Luiz, Cesar Azpilicueta, Gary Cahill, John Terry, Ryan Bertrand, Michael Essien, Ramires, Frank Lampard, John Obi Mikel, Marco van Ginkel, Fernando Torres, Juan Mata, Oscar, Victor Moses, Andre Schurrle, Kevin de Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Demba Ba
Frank Lampard is unlikely to be available thanks to his Achilles problem. Andre Schurrle and Kevin de Bruyne might be available after being held for the past couple of friendlies with sickness and a knee injury respectively.
International Champions Cup Format: The 2013 International Champions Cup is a bracketed competition in which all teams will play three games apiece. All games will require a result due to the format of the tournament, but there will not be extra time played in any of the games. All games will consist of two 45-minute halves, and if there is not a winner after 90, the game will proceed directly to penalties. Chelsea got to face off against Milan thanks to a routine win over Inter on Thursday; Milan are here because they beat Valencia in Spain on July 27th.
What's next: The winner of this match will face whomever emerges victorious between Real Madrid and Everton; the loser will have to contest a third place game.
Players to watch: Although Milan kept most of their stars out of the win over Valencia, I wouldn't be surprised to see a much stronger squad take the field against Chelsea. The likes of Mario Balotelli and Stephan El Shaarawy will be a fun test for Chelsea's back line, and you should keep a close watch on Riccardo Montolivo, because he has gorgeous eyes which you'll love getting lost in.
Some musings: We should be seeing more of the returnees from the Confederations Cup in the starting lineup. Oscar was the only one out of the six that began the match against Inter, although everyone eventually got on the pitch in the second half. Watch out for the movement of the pivot midfielders, who were far more aggressive going forward than they were against the Singha or Malaysian All-Stars. I bet Jose Mourinho will switch to 4-3-3 now that I've said that.
Also remember not to take this too seriously.
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