Two of Europe’s marquee soccer clubs put on a show in D.C. on Saturday night, as Chelsea FC took on AS Roma in a friendly match before 25,615 fans at RFK Stadium. With both teams in preseason form, it wasn’t the prettiest match, but in the end, the largely pro-Chelsea crowd went home happy as the storied English Premiership side rallied from an early deficit to claim a 2-1 victory over their opponents from Italy’s Serie A.
As expected, a number of first-choice players were conspicuously absent from the lineups, and the quality of play at times reflected that. Newly-signed backup Mark Schwarzer started in goal for Chelsea in place of Petr Cech and made an unsightly early blunder, badly misplaying a routine back pass from Ryan Bertrand in a scene eerily reminiscent of Marc-André ter Stegen’s stunning gaffe during June’s USA-Germany friendly at RFK. Schwartzer was spared own-goal ignominy by the left post, but Roma’s Erik Lamala alertly banged in the rebound to open the scoring in the twenty first minute.
Chelsea played a lackluster first half overall. Oft-maligned striker Fernando Torres was active early, but as he faded, Kevin De Bruyne, Victor Moses, and André Schürrle couldn’t quite pick up the slack. Roma increasingly dominated possession as the half wore on, with club legend Francesco Totti and U.S. Men’s National Team stalwart Michael Bradley deftly orchestrating play from the midfield.
Chelsea manager José Mourinho made wholesale substitutions at the start of the second half, which quickly paid off when Frank Lampard took a pass from Demba Ba, dribbled to just outside the penalty area, and sent a scorching shot past Roma keeper Morgan De Sanctis to even the match in the sixty-first minute. Play heated up over the next quarter-hour, both sides creating good chances and trading vociferous penalty claims as the action became more intense. Roma’s Totti continued to display his playmaking flair, but his attacking partners couldn’t get anything past Chelsea’s third-string keeper, Jamal Blackman.
Arguably, Roma played well enough to deserve a draw, but Chelsea managed to steal a win in the eighty-ninth minute. A clever run along the left end line by Eden Hazard led to a scramble in front of goal, with Romelu Lukaku eventually redirecting a pass from Ba into the back of the net for the decisive score.
Afterwards, Roma’s Bradley stressed the positives his club could take from the match despite the tough loss, while Chelsea’s Mourinho skipped out on his post-match press conference, perhaps disgruntled by his team’s play, or perhaps wanting to avoid yet another round of questions about his club’s possible acquisition of Man U’s Wayne Rooney, whose skills the Blues probably could have used on Saturday night.
