GOAL US presents CWC XI: Key observations from second week of the tournament, including Boca Juniors' valiant fight
Life is tough when you're the younger brother. The older guy has established the legacy, done all of the fun stuff. And then you're just the one who follows. Jobe Bellingham is a natural in the role. He even nailed the path, going from a struggling Championship club to Borussia Dortmund.
But early signs suggest that Bellingham the not-so-younger brother might actually be really rather good at this sport, too. He was magnificent for Dortmund last weekend, spearheading a chaotic 4-3 win over Mamelodi Sundowns.
That wasn't the only storyline of Matchday Two of the Club World Cup, though. MLS is either a mess or legit, depending on which results you look at. South American teams are still on fire – and based on the rapidly escalating temperatures, it seems the East Coast of the U.S. is pretty toasty, too. And finally, almost perfectly, Sergio Ramos still loves an unnecessarily hard tackle.
GOAL US presents theClub World Cup XI, with key observations from the second week of matches.
Getty1Denis Bouanga, Wyd?
LAFC had made all of the right noises about wanting to get through the group stages. They felt like they could put on a show for MLS, prove that the league was legit. So much for that. LAFC never played badly, exactly, but Denis Bouanga's stoppage time penalty miss sealed their fate. Lionel Messi and Inter Miami are doing their bit, but seemingly everyone else is rather letting American soccer down – at least in a CWC sense.
AdvertisementAFP2Mamelodi Sundowns are so, so, so fun
Ever wondered what will happen when you get a bunch of footballers who are ridiculous going forward but basically unhinged in the way they defend? Welcome to the Mamelodi Sundowns. The South African side scored three delightful goals against Dortmund. Unfortunately for them, they conceded two clueless ones, as well – and had few answers for the German side otherwise. Their 4-3 loss was one of the best games of the tournament thus far, though, so that's cool.
AFP3Are Chelsea bad, or Flamengo very good?
Perhaps the answer is a bit of both? But Chelsea didn't cover themselves in glory against the Brazilian side in Philadelphia. Lincoln Financial field was swarmed with Brazilian fans, and they were right behind Felipe Luis' side all the way. It's easy to point to Nico Jackson's mind-numbingly bad red card as an inflection point, but Chelsea were second-best throughout. Cole Palmer is again, and it turns out that Liam Delap still has some Ipswich left in him. Who knew?
Getty Images Sport4Auckland City fight, but Benfica have too much
Auckland City really are a lovely story miscast as a stick with which to beat this tournament. Yes, we know, they let in 10 against Bayern Munich. That's not very good. But they were much better against Benfica. They held out wonderfully against a side that included Angel Di Maria, and were unfortunate that the floodgates opened in the second half. Have a go at their inclusion all you want, but it's hard not to admire the fight from a semi-pro club who are happy to be swapping jerseys with their heroes at full time.