Monday, June 16 | 12 p.m. PT
🏟 | Mercedes-Benz Stadium - Atlanta, GA
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LAFC begins its journey in the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 when it faces Chelsea FC of the English Premier League in Atlanta, Georgia, in the first of three group-stage matches.
LAFC and Chelsea are in Group D – with Espérance de Tunis of Tunisia and CR Flamengo of Brazil – in the eight-group, 32-team tournament. Two teams from each group will advance to the Round of 16 based on points earned in the group stage. LAFC will face ES Tunis on June 20 and Flamengo on June 24.
Monday’s matchup features a 120-year-old club that has never been relegated from the English Premier League, and an American upstart that has won more matches, earned more points, and scored more goals than any MLS team since it joined the league in 2018.
“I think it is right to view us as underdogs,” LAFC Co-President and General Manager John Thorrington told the media at the LAFC Performance Center on Thursday. “That said, it is something that we can embrace. What I hope that Chelsea and Flamengo and Tunis and all these teams – I hope they walk off the field with a great level of respect as to the quality of our players and the intensity and the commitment of our players. And if we walk off the pitch every game with that, we will be proud and I trust that the results will fall our way.”
LAFC and Chelsea will both travel to the United States’ east coast on Friday. LAFC will train at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, while Chelsea’s training home will be the Philadelphia Union’s team facility in Chester, PA.
BLACK & BOLD
The only MLS team that will not play a home match in the group stage, LAFC earned its Club World Cup berth by defeating Club América 2-1 in the FIFA Club World Cup Play-in match in Los Angeles on May 31. (Inter Miami will play two group-stage matches in South Florida. All three of the Seattle Sounders’ group-stage matches will be played in Seattle.)
Unbeaten in 10 straight games in all competitions (5W-0L-5D), LAFC is led by forward Denis Bouanga, whose 48 league goals since the beginning of the 2023 season are five more than any other MLS player in that span (Christian Benteke, 43). Bouanga has continued to present danger this season; he currently ranks second in MLS with 36 shots on target (Hany Mukhtar, 38). Bouanga’s matchwinning goal in the 115th minute against América marked the sixth time he has scored in the 90th minute or later since he joined LAFC in August 2022.
At the opposite end of the pitch, goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, a veteran of 70 UEFA Champions League matches with Lyon and Tottenham, has posted five clean sheets in 15 MLS starts this season.
Defensive midfielder Igor Jesus is the linchpin of an LAFC midfield trio (with Mark Delgado and Timmy Tillman) that blends youth with experience and steadiness with speed. The 22-year-old possession specialist leads LAFC midfielders in minutes played (1,237).
BLUES BULLETIN
Led by manager Enzo Maresca, who joined Chelsea in July 2024, Chelsea finished fourth in the English Premier League this season with a record of 20W-9L-9D. Two weeks ago the London-based club defeated Real Betis of Spain 4–1 in the UEFA Conference League Final, becoming the first club in history to win each of the five major European trophies.
Chelsea closed out its EPL season with two wins, securing a top-five league finish and a place in the 2026 UEFA Champions League with a 1-0 win at home against Manchester United and a 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest, with defenders Marc Cucurella and Levi Colwill providing the two goals.
Attacking midfielder Cole Palmer was Chelsea’s leading goal scorer in 2024-25, with 15 goals in all competitions. The 23-year-old England international got off to a torrid start last fall, becoming the first player in Premier League history to score four times in the first half of a match (Sept. 28, 2024 vs. Brighton) and tallying eight more times before 2024 ended. He encountered a goalless spell between January and May then earned Man of the Match honors in the UEFA Conference League Final on May 28, assisting on two of Chelsea’s four goals. Palmer will wear the number 10 shirt for Chelsea in this competition instead of his customary number 20.
Midfielder Enzo Fernández led Chelsea with 14 assists in all competitions in 2024-25 and joined Palmer on the UEFA Conference League Team of the Tournament last month.
Twenty-two-year-old centerback Levi Colwill enjoyed a breakout season in 2024-25, leading Chelsea defenders in clearances and minutes played. He has been with the club since joining its academy at age eight.
Captain Reece James remains the Blues’ leader despite an injury-filled campaign that saw him start just 12 of 38 league games. The team’s most unheralded contributor, defensive midfielder Moisés Caicedo, was the only player to start every league game for Chelsea in 2024-25. Caicedo led the club in minutes played, tackles, and interceptions.
LAST-MINUTE MOVES
LAFC added winger Javairô Dilrosun to its roster on June 11, claiming the Dutch-Suriname international on loan from Club América, with an option to purchase. Dilrosun brings pace and creativity to the Black & Gold attack and is the second Dutch-born player in LAFC history. (Goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer made eight MLS starts for LAFC in 2020.)
Chelsea just confirmed its Club World Cup roster, which includes new signings Liam Delap, Mamadou Sarr, and Dário Essugo. Delap, a much-coveted striker, joins the Blues from just-relegated Ipswich Town, while centerback Sarr comes from French Ligue 1 side Strasbourg. Essugo, a midfielder, spent last season on loan with Las Palmas of La Liga and is a Portugal Under-21 international.
MERCI OLI
Chelsea qualified for the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 by winning the 2021 UEFA Champions League. The Blues’ leading scorer in that tournament was current LAFC forward Olivier Giroud, who tallied six times for Chelsea, including four goals against Sevilla in a group stage match in December 2020. Giroud added another against Atlético Madrid in the Round of 16, his last goal in a Chelsea shirt.
“Well, the first thing, the club has changed a lot,” Giroud said Thursday. “Every section of the club. [Chelsea] is still obviously a top, top club. A lot of young players. I played only with two of them now, Reece James and [Trevoh] Chalobah, so yeah, a lot of movements.
“It's a great feeling because when I cross people in the street, even in the U.S. they are big Arsenal and Chelsea fans and they tell me a lot of compliments regarding my time there and they're very thankful and grateful and so am I … [Chelsea] will be always in my heart, so it's going to be a special game.”
THE SETTING
LAFC has an all-time record of 1W-2L-0D at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. In 2018, the Black & Gold’s inaugural season, LAFC lost 5-0 to eventual MLS Cup champions Atlanta United on their home pitch (which will be transformed from artificial turf to natural grass for this competition). In 2021 LAFC fell to Atlanta United at The Benz, 1-0, then defeated them there in 2024 by that same 1-0 score line.
Chelsea played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium twice as part of its preseason tours of the U.S. in 2023 and 2024. The Blues drew with Newcastle, 1-1, in July 2023, and defeated Club América, 3-0, in July 2024.
LLORIS V. CHELSEA
In his 11-and-a-half seasons with Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, Hugo Lloris faced Chelsea 19 times in league play. Lloris’ Spurs side went unbeaten in 10 of those contests, with its French captain posting three clean sheets. The last time Lloris faced the Blues, the result was a 2-2 draw during the 2022-23 campaign. Defenders Reece James and Marc Cucurella are the only current Chelsea players who saw the pitch that day, with James scoring in the 77th minute.
INTERNATIONAL UPDATE
LAFC and Chelsea players were active during FIFA’s June international window. LAFC forward David Martínez started and played 58 minutes in Venezuela’s 2-0 defeat to Uruguay in World Cup Qualifying. Fellow LAFC forward Nathan Ordaz assisted on El Salvador’s only goal in their 1-1 draw with Suriname in another World Cup qualifier.
Among the Chelsea players competing internationally during the window were winger Pedro Neto, who contributed an assist to Portugal’s defeat of Spain (and his Chelsea teammate Cucurella) in the UEFA Nations League Final, which was decided on penalties.
Nicolas Jackson (13 goals for Chelsea in all competitions in 2024-2025) helped Senegal to a 3-1 defeat of England in an international friendly. His Chelsea teammates Colwill and Trevoh Chalobah featured for England.
Argentina international Enzo Fernández received a red card and was sent off late in Argentina’s 1-1 draw with Colombia in World Cup Qualifying. Caicedo played all 90 minutes of Ecuador’s scoreless draw with Peru in World Cup qualifying.
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LAFC CAN WIN IF
It offers possession to Chelsea while limiting their chances and striking hard on the counterattack. It’s a tall order considering the talent within the Blues’ attack, but if the Black & Gold can bend but not break, then play quickly and directly once the ball is theirs, LAFC can do more than just hang with the favorites from England. Lloris leads a defensive effort that ranks fourth in MLS in xGA (expected goals allowed) and is tied for third in fewest shots on target allowed. Maintaining that ungenerous attitude against Palmer & Company is critical to earning a result.
CHELSEA CAN WIN IF
Their investments pay off. Matthew Doyle of MLSSoccer.com points out that Chelsea, who doesn’t contend with salary rules like those in Major League Soccer, spends “an impossi-billion dollars every transfer window (including $40 million on a new No. 9 this week).” That new No. 9 is Delap, the 22-year-old goal scorer who attracted offers from around the world before signing a reported eight-figure deal with Chelsea earlier this month. He is one of several multi-millionaires who will be wearing Blue in Atlanta. Whether they can produce at that level will be determined Monday afternoon.
