The Hallucinating Goose

I quite agree, as we were just saying, the Boca fans were making a fantastic atmosphere, singing and chanting, and ultimately cancelling out that constant monotonous, unbroken murmer that's there just been at other games. Though I must say, in my opinion the NFL games I've struggled watching through in the past have had that same flat atmosphere, just a bit louder than these games cos the grounds are full for NFL games. This is just American sports crowds; I've seen videos on YouTube of Americans reacting to hardcore football crowds in Europe and South America and they are basically gobsmacked, speechless and generally horrified by the passion that football fans show and can't believe anyone would be so dedicated to a sports team that they'd act like that. Very different sporting cultures.

Just because we love talking about attendances on this forum, here are all the attendances from the Club World Cup so far. (Capacity in brackets). ------------ Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens - 60,927 (64,767) TQL Stadium, Cincinnati - 21,152 (26,000) Rose Bowl, Pasadena - 80,619 (92,542) MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford - 46,275 (82,566) Lumen Field, Seattle - 30,151 (72,000) Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta - 22,137 (71,000) Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens - 55,574 (64,767) Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia - 25,797 (67,594)

This is something I've been wondering about all of the non-American teams. Certainly when the crowd is shown, you can see a lot of souvenir shirts and fake shirts that have probably been bought outside the ground, which would suggest they are Americans that don't necessarily support one of the teams playing. This ultimately has meant that a lot of the crowds have been quite flat. As you said, the Boca fans were fantastic and it was obvious they were hardcore fans that had travelled from Buenos Aires. I will say that I found that first half I watched of the Boca game a lot more entertaining and enjoyable than the other games I've watched and I think it does suggest that when the big European teams meet more competitive opponents, the quality of the tournament will increase.

I watched the first half and I must say that it was a more entertaining game. Much more intensity and passion to the play, both teams playing with determination rather than just casually passing the ball along the back line and then walking up to the edge of the opponents box. This is what happens when you've got teams that can actually compete with each other.

22,137

Yes!! 2-0 Chelsea with 10 mins to go!

Current BBC headline on their live updates of this game: "Delap on for debut as Chelsea lead LAFC in front of empty seats". Even the BBC's reporting is pointing out the empty stadium. Edit. In fact there's even an article talking about it. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c8rpxjgr8mjo

NFL stadiums really are the ugliest stadiums in the world.

C'mon Chelsea! First goal! Europe!! Europe!!

Oh please no, a Mexican wave! That is probably the saddest thing I have ever seen at a football game. This is a European football match, where are the flares and smoke bombs and fighting and songs with C words in them and bricks being thrown onto the pitch?? Bloody hell, this is sickeningly uncool...

I'm not watching the PSG-Athletico game but the live stats are suggesting that PSG have dominated the first 30 mins. Edit. As soon as I say I'm not watching it, Brother Goose has just turned up and stuck it on without even asking. Luckily Mrs. Goose has gone to bed.

Full time. That was a fantastic advert for the club world cup...

YES! 10-0!!

9. 83 gone.

On the 79th minute, Auckland have had a shot!!

PENALTY! 8-0 Bayern, 72 mins gone.

Bayern were just walking up the pitch with the ball then, waiting for Auckland to get back into their defensive formation so Bayern could carry on with their training drill. I'm not even joking, that is literally what they were doing.

7-0 Bayern, 67 mins gone. Took them a while to score in this half cos they haven't been trying at all.

They should, it would be far more competitive.

I've just seen an American copper stood at the side who is absolutely the spitting image of Sheriff JW Pepper from James Bond!

What are Bayern doing?! They've taken Kane off before he scored! That's not right!

I don't know how FIFA can justify this game taking place, I really don't. Especially in a country where there's liable to be a lot of first time spectators at games. This certainly isn't a good advert for the sport.

They were talking about one Auckland player earlier who has had to take all 4 weeks of his annual leave to be able to play here. They've just said the largest winning margin in the old format of this tournament was 6-1, so by HT Bayern have already beaten that. Pundits at HT are reckoning we will see double figures. 6 goals scored and Kane hasn't even got one of them.

6-0 Bayern, 45+3 mins gone.

5-0 Bayern, 44 mins gone.