Correction appended
You have to be a careful water boy when Chelsea is in town.
Along with the two-time defending English Premier League Champions
comes their billionaire owner Roman Abramovich.
Abramovich was sitting on a water cooler, watching his team
practice on the intramural field at UCLA to get ready for its Aug.
5 matchup with the MLS All-Stars in Chicago.
“(Chelsea) had a water break,” UCLA defender Greg
Folk said. “So one of the other water boys, a young guy, just
kinda moved (Abramovich) off, so he could give water to the
players. Then the water boy sat down on the cooler. It wasn’t
a big deal at the time but then an American personnel (member) came
over and started yelling at us for kicking Roman Abramovich off the
cooler, basically being overprotective of the owner.”
Chelsea is in the U.S. to start off its preseason in an attempt
to increase international support for the club. Before traveling to
Chicago, the team has a weeklong training session in Los Angeles.
Fans have lined the fences of the intramural field every day to
catch glimpses of their favorite stars, such as team captain John
Terry and Joe Cole, who represented England in the World Cup, and
recent addition Andriy Shevchenko, captain of Ukraine’s first
side to qualify for the World Cup.
UCLA soccer players were able to get close to the international
stars, thanks to their coach, Jorge Salcedo.
“Our coach just saw us out watching the training through
the fence and he asked one of their managers if we could join them
on the field and maybe carry some water around,” Folk
said.
Members of both the men and women’s soccer teams have been
given all sorts of odd jobs while Chelsea is in town, from being
water boys to moving goals to keeping fans from encroaching on the
practice field.
The opportunity for the UCLA team to watch one of the top teams
in the world play did not go unappreciated by Salcedo’s
players.
“It’s really a great honor,” UCLA defender
Brandon Owens said. “It’s real cool to be out here with
world-class players ““ people that you see on TV. To actually
have them be a few feet in front of you, and actually talk to you,
and be pretty genuine nice guys, and you get their autograph,
it’s a real nice experience.”
Even the coach has taken advantage of having guests in Westwood,
learning from acclaimed manager Jose Mourinho.
“Jose Mourinho is one of the top managers in the
world,” Salcedo said. “Some of the ways he prepares his
team, some of the ways he warms his team up, his enthusiasm, his
involvement, his seriousness, there’s so much you can take
from everything they’re training.”
At the same time, the Chelsea players are enjoying their
opportunity to be in Los Angeles.
“I went to see Venice Beach,” midfielder Joe Cole
joked. “I saw the big guys there lifting weights. I was gonna
go in there myself but I didn’t see dumbells that small in
there.”
The players, who are huge celebrities back home, enjoy the
ability to be slightly more anonymous in the U.S., where the sport
is not as popular.
“People don’t recognize you in America because
obviously football isn’t as big as the other sports,”
Cole said. “We went down Rodeo Drive and no one recognized
us. It was nice.”
Joining the team in Los Angeles will be German-national-team
captain Michael Ballack, who will be forced to undergo a Chelsea
tradition: All new Chelsea players have to get up in front of the
rest of the team and perform a song. That includes
multi-million-pound signee Ballack and Shevchenko, who signed for a
club-record fee at an estimated 30 million pounds.
“There’ve been a few shocking ones so far,”
Terry said. “A few of the younger lads have gone up.
We’ve got one every day. (Salomon) Kalou went last night. It
was absolutely terrible.”
Terry and his teammates have dominated the English Premier
League with Abramovich in the owner’s box, winning the title
two years running. The Champions League, however, that follows
regular season play, has as of yet eluded Chelsea, and it is with
that in their sights that they begin this year’s
campaign.
“Domestically we’re doing very well and we want to
improve on that year after year,” Terry said. “But the
ultimate obviously is the Champions League and every squad is
desperate for it.”
Before they begin the run for a Champions League title that went
to Liverpool two seasons ago, they will face off against an
American side that has not been a complete pushover in years
past.1
“They’re in the middle of their season,
they’re very fit,” Cole said. “We played (D.C.
United) last year and they went one-nil up, they looked very
strong, had lots of good players. They’ve proven over the
years ““ the Americans ““ that they can compete at the
top level and they’ve some very good players.”
1 CORRECTION : This sentence was changed to
read “two seasons ago."