5,000 fans turn up to watch Chelsea training!

Ok so we all know that our team are big, but can you imagine 5,000 diehard fans turning up to watch Chelsea train in England. No way! But that is how many Americans went along to see Chelsea’s final training session before tonight’s game against Seattle Sounders.

32 years ago, in 1977, Chelsea were in Seattle to play the local team, but only 15,000 turned up for the match. Tonight they are expecting a sell-out 70,000 fans filling the stadium. That is just a sign of how much American football (sorry, soccer!) has grown since then.

The 1977 match was again the first in the tour, but was played indoors on Astroturf. “The bounce of the ball was a bit higher and moved quicker. So many balls went astray and we had to settle for the long shot and the long pass. It’s not like grass. It was a bit of a shock,” said manager Eddie McCreadie after the 2-0 defeat.

This time around, Seattle have laid a new turf pitch especially for this game, so Chelsea won’t have any excuses if they lose 2-0 again!