2009 World Football Challenge

2009 World Football Challenge

Tournament details
Country	United States
Venue(s)	6 (in 6 host cities)
Teams	4 (from 2 confederations)
Final positions
Champions	Chelsea[1]
Runner-up	América
Tournament statistics
Matches played	6
Goals scored	14 (2.33 per match)
Attendance	336,813 (56,136 per match)
Top goal scorer(s)	Didier Drogba Diego Milito (2 goals)

The 2009 World Football Challenge was the first edition of the World Football Challenge, an exhibition international club association football competition featuring football clubs from Europe and North America, which has been held first in summer of 2009 in United States. Chelsea was the champions.

Format

In 2009, each team played the other three teams in the tournament once in a round-robin tournament format, with each game played at a neutral venue in the United States. Chelsea emerged as the World Football Challenge champion for 2009. The following four clubs participated in the 2009 tournament:[2][3][4]

• Chelsea from the Premier League in England
• América from the Primera División in Mexico
• Inter Milan from the Serie A in Italy
• Milan from the Serie A in Italy

Venues

Six cities served as the venues of the 2009 World Football Challenge.[4]

Palo Alto, California	Pasadena, California	Atlanta, Georgia	Palo Alto Pasadena Arlington Atlanta Baltimore Foxborough class=notpageimage| Location of the host cities of the 2009 World Football Challenge.
Stanford Stadium	Rose Bowl	Georgia Dome
Capacity: 50,000	Capacity: 95,542	Capacity: 71,228
Baltimore, Maryland	Foxborough, Massachusetts	Arlington, Texas
M&T Bank Stadium	Gillette Stadium	Cowboys Stadium
Capacity: 71,008	Capacity: 68,756	Capacity: 80,000

Rules

Chelsea vs América at the Cowboys Stadium.

Clubs received one point for each goal scored in regulation time (up to three goals per game). Clubs earned three points for a win that does not go into penalty kicks. After 90 minutes of play, if the match was tied, each team received one point and the winner of the penalty kicks received an additional point. The team with the highest overall number of points determined the World Football Challenge champion.[5]

Standings

Pos	Nation	Team	Pld	W	PKW	PKL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	England	Chelsea	3	3	0	0	0	6	1	+5	15
2	Mexico	América	3	1	1	0	1	3	4	−1	8
3	Italy	Inter Milan	3	1	0	1	1	3	3	0	7
4	Italy	Milan	3	0	0	0	3	2	6	−4	2

Source: ^[citation needed]

Matches

July 19

19:00 EST

América	1–1	Inter Milan
Silva 51'	Report	Córdoba 61'
Penalties
Chitiva Mosquera Silva Márquez Ó. Rojas	5–4	Balotelli Milito Ibrahimović Vieira Burdisso

Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto, California

Attendance: 31,026

Referee: Baldomero Toledo (California)

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July 21

23:00 EST

Chelsea	2–0	Inter Milan
Drogba 11' Lampard 50' (pen.)	Report

Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California

Attendance: 81,224

Referee: Ricardo Salazar (California)

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July 22

19:00 EST

América	2–1	Milan
Esqueda 56' Márquez 84'	Report	Inzaghi 66'

Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia

Attendance: 53,600

Referee: Alex Prus (South Carolina)

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July 24

20:00 EST

Chelsea	2–1	Milan
Drogba 7' Zhirkov 69'	Report	Seedorf 38'

M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, Maryland

Attendance: 71,203

Referee: Mark Geiger (New Jersey)

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July 26

17:00 EST

Inter Milan	2–0	Milan
Milito 4', 75'	Report

Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts

Attendance: 42,531[6]

Referee: Jorge González (New York)

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July 26

19:00 EST

Chelsea	2–0	América
Di Santo 76' Malouda 78'	Report

Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, Texas

Attendance: 57,229

Referee: Paul Ward (Vancouver)

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Nation	Club	Goals
1	Didier Drogba	CIV	Chelsea	2
	Diego Milito	ARG	Inter Milan
3	Iván Córdoba	COL	Inter Milan	1
	Enrique Esqueda	MEX	América
	Filippo Inzaghi	ITA	Milan
	Frank Lampard	ENG	Chelsea
	Florent Malouda	FRA	Chelsea
	Daniel Márquez	MEX	América
	Franco Di Santo	ARG	Chelsea
	Clarence Seedorf	NED	Milan
	Juan Carlos Silva	MEX	América
	Yuri Zhirkov	RUS	Chelsea

References

1. "The US tour has been concluded with the World Football Challenge bowl and a fourth win in four". Chelsea. chelseafc.com.
2. Scime, Adam (March 24, 2009). "Inter, Chelsea And Milan Enter World Football Challenge 2009 Tournament". Goal.com. Retrieved July 21, 2009. Chelsea, Milan and Inter have entered the World Football Challenge 2009 tournament along with Mexican entrants Club America.
3. Cardillo, Michael (March 24, 2009). "World Football Challenge Coming to a City Near You". Fanhouse. Archived from the original on June 15, 2009. Retrieved July 21, 2009. ... which brings super clubs Chelsea, AC Milan, Inter Milan and Club America to a six-match 'series' this summer...
4. "Chelsea, Inter, Club America and AC Milan to face off in U.S." ESPN Soccernet. March 24, 2009. Archived from the original on October 20, 2012. Retrieved July 21, 2009.
5. "World Football Challenge". World Football Challenge. Archived from the original on July 16, 2009. Retrieved July 21, 2009.
6. "Report: AC Milan v Internazionale - World Football Challenge - ESPNFC". ESPN. July 26, 2009. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved October 24, 2012.

External links

• Official website