Chelsea FC In Australia
By Lee Fraser
Chelsea FC fans in Australia, I salute you all.
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Unless you have the funds and time to travel to the other side of the world this will be the first time you have seen Chelsea FC in the flesh for 41 years.
41 years of getting up at 2am to watch a team park the bus and play boring boring football calls for true dedication!
Seriously though I can only imagine the excitement you are all feeling right now, finally getting to see your team play on your pitch in your own country.
A warm Sydney airport welcome! @ChelseaFC #champions #CFCinSydney pic.twitter.com/7CA5Q4NbEG
— Mel Madigan (@Mel_Madigan) May 31, 2015
Your excitement has not been lost on the players and despite the jet lag you inspired John Terry to say:
“We were all pretty tired and when we came through we all lit up. The welcome was overwhelming and we got mobbed a little bit but it was nice and we’re delighted to be here.”
Eden Hazard was particularly impressed with the welcome when he said in the press conference:
‘The fans here are crazy but that’s good, and I hope we can show them we are here to win the game and enjoy it. We want to finish with a victory, we won in Bangkok and now we are here to win. After that we will have a holiday, a rest and be ready for next season.’
A Champions welcome to Sydney @ChelseaFC #CFCinSydney 80,000+ fans can't wait to see you @ANZStadium pic.twitter.com/qShrSZmJVX
— Mel Madigan (@Mel_Madigan) May 31, 2015
Jose Mourinho also recognised the importance of this final match of the season, albeit a friendly, because the whole club has a responsibility to not let the fans down when in the same press conference he said:
‘Firstly, you are enthusiastic but so are we, we feel the responsibility to play well and use our best players. We feel the responsibility to win and give them (the fans) a good experience.
For us it’s important as a club, it’s a long time since we came here and to come one week after being crowned champions is a big responsibility.
We always feel responsibility; we were in Bangkok, we went to the stadium and there were 45,000 in blue shirts so you can’t lose, you can’t just play for fun.’
The last time Chelsea FC were in Australia was in May and June 1974 when we played 6 matches against hastily assembled state sides winning 4, losing 1 and having the match in Brisbane abandoned at half time due to a waterlogged pitch!
In the match against Western Australia Chelsea FC players included the likes of Peter Bonetti, Ron Chopper Harris, Peter Osgood, David Webb, Ian Hutchinson, Mickey Droy and Eddie McCreadie.
This year’s team includes the equally famous names of Petr Cech, John Terry, Eden Hazard, Diego Costa, Branislav Ivanovic, Gary Cahill and Dave!
The attendances back in 1974 were in the region of 6,000, this time round the match in Sydney has sold out a capacity of 83,000!
Welcome Australia to the #CFCFamily and make sure you look after our boys in Royal Blue!
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