Sturridge scores on debut as Chelsea beat Seattle 2-0

The new Chelsea striker Daniel Sturridge scored Chelsea’s opening goal just eleven minutes into a 2-0 win over the Seattle Sounders. He carefully pushed his shot wide of the keeper and just inside the right hand post for an excellent start to his Chelsea career. The 19 year-old started the game alongside Nicolas Anelka in the abscence of Didier Drogba.

A crowd of 65,289 turned up for Chelsea’s first game of the pre-season, and they weren’t disappointed as Frank Lampard put Chelsea 1-0 up after 33 minutes, after Sturridge was involved again, passing the ball forward to Anelka. He squared the ball into the box where Lampard was waiting to make it 2-0.

The second half was a different team altogether as Lampard and Ballack were the only ones to return to the pitch, and although there were a few chances, mostly from Di Santo, the scores remained the same.

The ex-Arsenal Ljungberg came close a couple of times for the Sounders, forcing Cech into an excellent save from a free kick, but mostly Chelsea were dominant throughout.

Chelsea team (s)
First-half (4-1-4-1): Cech, Bosingwa, Alex, Terry (c), A Cole; Deco; Ballack, Malouda; Lampard; Anelka, Sturridge.
Second-half (4-1-4-1): Hilario; Belletti, Ivanovic, Carvalho, Hutchinson; Ballack (Mikel 62); Sinclair, Lampard; Shevchenko; Pizarro, Di Santo.
Scorers Sturridge 11, Lampard 33.
Booked Lampard 90+1

Sounders (4-3-3): Keller (Boss h-t); Riley (Brown 70), Hurtado (Neagle 70), Marshall, Wahl (Scott h-t); Ljundberg (Fucito 73), Alonso, Zakuani (Nyassi 62); Montero (Levesque 62), Vagenas (Sturgis h-t), Jaqua (Le Roux h-t).