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Time for a drinks break, and an email from Joe Pearson. “It’s a midday match on a workday. These matches weren’t scheduled for attendance, they were scheduled for European television. You will note that so far, European teams have played at noon or 3PM EST. This is not an accident.”
21 mins: A lovely bit of ball-juggling from Lorch to outfox Ake, and the winger then picks out Zemraoui, who tries to go round his man rather than shoot, and then flops to the turf unconvincingly.
19 mins: The corner swings towards Ake, who heads just wide of the far post.
18 mins: Rico Lewis, sporting a new lid for a new season, races upfield to support Savinho but Boutouil gets a foot on the ball to concede a corner.
15 mins: From a City corner, Savinho’s acrobatic attempt backfires but Mailula goes in on Marmoush with a high boot into a sensitive area. He goes into the book; Foden whips in the corner, which is headed behind by a defender with Aké lurking.
13 mins: Oof! Cherki gives the ball away close to the halfway line and Moufid decides to have a go from 50 yards out. His shot is well struck and on target, but Ederson is there to palm it out of the sky.
10 mins: Chance for Wydad! This could, maybe should, have been 1-1. Moufid gets ahead of Lewis and weights a pass towards Lorch, who is unmarked but just unable to get a toe on the ball. Amrabat collects out wide, but his cross is cleared away.
9 mins: I don’t think the stadium looks quite so empty as the venue in Atlanta did for Chelsea’s game – and Wydad’s fans, a mass of red and white behind their team’s goal, are creating a decent atmosphere.
8 mins: Foden is fouled and when City restart, the ball is worked swiftly to Marmoush, whose shot from the edge of the area is inches wide of the far post.
7 mins: Some early trickery from Rayan Cherki, backheeling to Savinho on the edge of the area …
5 mins: Wydad, their defensive gameplan blown up inside two minutes, enjoy a spell of possession before Amrabat’s slide-rule pass down the right just runs out of play.
GOAL! Man City 1-0 Wydad (Foden 2')
Doku’s cross lands at Phil Foden’s feet, and he plays it to Savinho on the right. The Brazilian’s cross is palmed out weakly by Benabid, and Foden is on hand to turn the rebound in! That didn’t take long.
1 min: City launch their first attack, a long ball finding Doku in space on the left …
First half
After both sets of players are introduced to the crowd one by one, we kick off a couple of minutes late.
It’s 26 degrees and overcast in Philadelphia this afternoon, with similar conditions in my spare room some 3,500 miles away. Don’t worry, I’m hydrating. While we wait, here’s the latest Football Daily:
“I’ve found if you think of this tournament less as a sporting contest, and more as a Ballardian bitter satire about gaudy, empty, dystopian, meaningless mismatched spectacles, it’s much more fun,” writes Paul Griffin. On the other hand, Boca Juniors v Benfica was a decent watch.
Here’s Pep Guardiola: “Basically, everyone is going to play in this tournament. The season starts today and ends next May or June. I trust all of them, and in the next game, maybe we’ll change a lot [of players]. We want to create the ‘bones’, the way we will play for the next season.”
On Rodri: “Everyone wants to see him back, but I want to be sure he’s ready.” On Wydad: “We expect them to be physical … teams from this area are always tough. We’re not thinking about winning the tournament, just each game.”
On that subject, an interesting read from Alex Abnos. Had Fifa used soccer-specific venues for this tournament, things might look very different.
It’s looking like another low turnout in Philadelphia, with just a smattering of fans taking their seats around the vast venue. This stadium is home to the reigning Super Bowl champs, the Philadelphia Eagles, and also hosted Wrestlemania XL in 2024. It’s normally a lot busier than this on game day.
This game is being shown for free on Channel 5 (in the UK) and Dazn. Andros Townsend has warned that Wydad can be dangerous on the break, which has certainly been a weakness for City’s defence in recent months.
So, Pep hands debuts to Reijnders and Cherki in what looks an attacking line-up, Phil Foden completing the midfield and Omar Marmoush preferred to Erling Haaland at centre-forward. There’s also a rare outing for January recruit Vitor Reis in central defence. City have named 15 substitutes, including Rodri and new recruit Rayan Aït-Nouri, in what may be the best pool of talent ever assembled on one bench.
Team news
Manchester City (4-3-3): Ederson; Lewis, Vitor Reis, Ake, O’Reilly; Reijnders, Foden, Cherki; Savinho, Doku, Marmoush.
Subs: Ortega, Stones, Akanji, Dias, Aït Nouri, Gvardiol, Khusanov, Gündogan, Silva, Rodri, Nunes, Bobb, González, Echeverri, Haaland.
Wydad Casablanca (5-4-1): Benabid; Moufid, Boutouil, Meijers, Ferreira, Moufi; Amrabat, Zemraoui, El Moubarik, Lorch; Mailula.
Subs: El Motie, Aqzdaou, Harkass, Malsa, Benktib, Arthur, Moutaraji, Pedrinho, Bennani, Mahtou, Mohamed Rayhi, Aziz Ki, Obeng, Fathi, Mwalimu.
Preamble
Manchester City’s rebuild officially starts here. Since closing the season with a third-place finish and defeat in the FA Cup final, City have said goodbye to Kevin De Bruyne, stuck Jack Grealish in a taxi and brought in three new players with indecent haste.
Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders and not one but two Rayans – left-back Aït-Nouri and playmaker Cherki – are all in the squad for this Stateside jamboree. Pep Guardiola has also decided that this job is too big for one Pep, recruiting former Liverpool coach Pep Lijnders as his new assistant.
The two Peps are hoping to begin a beautiful friendship today against Wydad Casablanca, who qualified for the Club World Cup by winning Africa’s Champions League in 2022. Wydad reached out to Cristiano Ronaldo earlier this year, but the most familiar name in their squad is former Watford winger Nordin Amrabat.
The Moroccan side are rated as 55-1 outsiders for this game, with City then facing Abu Dhabi’s own Al-Ain before taking on Juventus. The runners-up in Group G are likely to face Real Madrid in the July heat of Miami in the last 16, something probably best avoided.
For this and many other reasons, Guardiola will want to hit the ground running, or at least briskly jogging, Rocky Balboa style, in Philadelphia today. Kick-off is at 5pm BST, 12pm local time.
