Two of Chelsea FC’s top veterans, Frank Lampard and Peter Cech, as well as two highly regarded new signees, will be part of the European League champions’ tour that plays a friendly against at Sounders at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Englishman Lampard captained Chelsea in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich, and is Chelsea club’s top-scoring midfielder in club history. Czech goalkeeper Cech holds records for the cleanest sheets and fewest goals conceded in an English top-flight season.
Five players who made it beyond the group stage of EURO 2012 — Ashley Cole, John Terry, Florent Malouda, Raul Meireles and Fernando Torre — will join up during the course of the tour.
Chelsea’s newest signings, 21-year-old Belgian midfielder Eden Hazard and 23-year-old German winger Marko Marin, are included.
Hazard was instrumental in achieving a League and Cup double with French club Lille in the 2010-2011 season, and was named Ligue 1 Player of the Year for the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 seasons. His final season at Lille he finished with 20 goals, second-best in Ligue 1. Marin comes from Germany’s Werder Bremen, having made 87 Bundesliga appearances with the club while contributing 12 goals. He has 16 caps with the German national side, making two appearances at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
After opening the tour in Seattle, Chelsea moves to New York to take on budding French superpower Paris Saint Germain July 22 at Yankee Stadium. After they face the MLS’s best in the All-Star Game July 25, the club will travel to Miami to take on AC Milan July 28.
Before the Chelsea match, the Sounders will honor one of their heroes from the NASL history, Roger Davies, who will receive the club’s Golden Scarf.
Davies, signed by his former Derby County teammate, then-Sounders coach Alan Hinton, was a big part of the 1980 season that was one of the best in Sounders history (25-7). He scored an incredible 25 goals in 29 games and had 11 assists. Davies was selected as the league’s most valuable player as voted on by his fellow players. He also played an important role in Seattle reaching Soccer Bowl ’82.
CHELSEA ROSTER
Goalkeepers: Petr Cech, Henrique Hilario, Ross Turnbull, Jamal Blackman
Defenders: Branislav Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, John Terry, David Luiz, Paulo Ferreira, Gary Cahill, Sam Hutchinson, Todd Kane, Nathaniel Chalobah
Midfielders: Michael Essien, Ramires, Flourent Malouda, Raul Meireles, Frank Lampard, John Mikel Obi, Eden Hazard, Marko Marin, Yossi Benayoun, Josh McEachran, George Saville.
Forwards: Romelu Lukaku, Fernando Torres, Gael Kakuta, Kevin De Bruyne, Patrick Bamford, Lucas Piazon.
3 Comments
NO! NO! NO!!!!! We don’t need a dram queen!
Remember, Hamm, Seahawks aren’t asking him to marry your sister. Just catch a few balls. With Goodell as czar, the Seahawks can probably write up a contract that is canceled if he uses the subject “I” instead of “we” in any interview.