Enzo Maresca has offered a strong hint over his selection plans for Chelsea at the Club World Cup.
Chelsea open their Club World Cup on Monday in Atlanta at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, looking to kick their campaign off with a victory.
Maresca's side will come up against the MLS outfit , who have former Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud in their attacking ranks.
The Blues, who arrived at their Philadelphia base on Friday, are eyeing silverware come next month, and will be keen to get off to a positive start in the United States.
Ready to take on the @FIFACWC. pic.twitter.com/U7sfzfHiOq
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) June 16, 2025
Ahead of Monday's fixture, Maresca was put in front of the media to preview Chelsea against LAFC in the Club World Cup.
"We've only had ten days. Some of the players also had international duty. The feeling when we returned was a bit like pre-season. We had some new players. The main message, though, was, 'Guys, this is not pre-season. It's a big tournament'."
"The situation about the keepers is quite simple. Robert Sanchez is number one. Filip Jorgensen is number two. And we will analyse and judge Mike Penders. Maignan is with another club."
"The players with us were with us last season, (other than) Jadon Sancho and Wesley Fofana due to injury. It was not complicated to pick this squad."
"I didn't ask him. He wasn't ill. To be honest, I don't even know if it was for a joke!"
"Jadon (Sancho) is not with us so for sure that is a position we need to do something. We have Noni, Pedro and Ty only as the proper wingers so something for sure is going to happen."
"For sure, we are going to rotate players. It is impossible in this heat to always play with the same players."
"Liam knows how important the no.9 is for this club. I see Liam relaxed and easy, since he arrived he's working well. I know what he can give us and he knows what he needs to be a better player. As no.9, hopefully he can score goals for us.
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) June 15, 2025
"When we faced Ipswich, I said back then he could be an England number nine. And now he's with us, I say it again, he can be an England number nine in the future."
"In the Conference League, for every other team facing us was their game of the season. It might be there same here. If we don't prepare properly, we will have a problem against LAFC."
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There is no ramp-up period for the Chicago Bears at training camp this year. Head coach Ben Johnson brought the same intensity he harbored during OTAs at the Bears’ first practice of training camp Wednesday at Halas Hall in Lake Forest, Illinois. Adam Hoge of CHGO Bears said that Johnson was upset with Williams and the offense multiple times on Wednesday. He got into the face of the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft during a seven-on-seven drill. “Accountability is what I’m talking about, though, because, look, it was like a three-strike thing, let’s call three strikes, and you’re out all right,” Hoge said on the CHGO podcast. “Because we saw Ben get in Caleb’s, you know what, during seven-on-sevens about something. I don’t know what it was about, but he wasn’t happy, and he was screaming at him, alright.” Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson tried to show patience Johnson tried to show patience with the second mistake, when there was a miscommunication with the wide receivers getting lined up. He let Williams and the receivers sort the issue out before the play. But Johnson didn’t stand idly on the third pre-snap mistake; another miscommunication between Williams and the receivers. Johnson pulled the entire first-team off the field in favor of the second-team led by veteran quarterback Case Keenum. Caleb Williams is picking up where he left off in OTAs Per multiple reports, the Bears’ offense had a poor day. Mark Carman called Williams’ performance on Wednesday the worst part of practice. “Today was just bad,” Carman said. “They had to pull the offense off the field. (Williams) wasn’t getting them lined up. It might not have been his fault every single time...his first pass was picked off (by linebacker Tremaine Edmunds). “He rolled right on long play, Cold Kmet’s wide open right in front of him. He ended up running out of bounds. It just wasn’t a good day for the quarterback.” Williams didn’t have a great spring. He struggled with every duty from calling the play in the huddle to getting the cadence right to throwing the ball into the middle of the field or further than 10 yards. As of Day 1 at camp, all of those things are still problems. But at least the $13 million per year head coach is mad.
Aaron Rodgers made his practice debut for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday, and it was not necessarily a moment he will want to remember. Rodgers’ very first pass was intercepted by linebacker Patrick Queen. The quarterback was trying to find top target DK Metcalf on a curl route, but was not quite accurate enough. Rodgers will not lose any sleep over this. It is not the first interception he has thrown in a practice session and it will not be the last. It did make for some amusing viewing for critics, though, and even some Steelers fans got a chuckle out of it. The Steelers are hoping Rodgers can lift them to at least a playoff win in 2025. If he succeeds, he is in line for a pretty big payday, and might even be able to go out on a high note if this is in fact his final NFL season. The other bright side to Rodgers’ inauspicious start to his Pittsburgh career? It will probably make Giants rookie Jaxson Dart feel a little bit better about his own first pass.
The St. Louis Cardinals have been the talk of the trade block all season and now we are just days away from decision day. With the trade deadline coming on July 31st, we will soon know the team’s thoughts. The Cardinals have been clear that the standings will dictate deadline decisions and things haven’t been trending in the right direction since the All-Star break. The Cardinals have a few days to turn things around, but a slight sale seems possible at this point. CBS Sports’ Mike Axisa predicted the Cardinals will end up moving pieces and send Ryan Helsley to the Los Angeles Dodgers. "Los Angeles Dodgers: P Ryan Helsley," Axisa said. "The Dodgers needed bullpen even before Tanner Scott exited Monday's game with a forearm issue. Scott and Kirby Yates have underwhelmed, and who knows how effective Blake Treinen will be when he returns from his own forearm issue in the coming weeks? He's been out since mid-April. POBO Andrew Friedman doesn't like overpaying at the trade deadline, but he doesn't have much of a choice right now. The Dodgers are the most win-now team in the sport and the bullpen is a huge weakness. "The Cardinals are hanging around the wild-card race themselves and I suppose they could keep Helsley, though he will be a free agent after the season, and I think the market for high-end relievers will be too strong to pass up. I could see St. Louis buying and selling at the same time. Trade Helsley, then pick up a different (controllable) reliever to backfill his innings. The Dodgers seem likely to add multiple relievers at the deadline. I'll bet on Helsley being the most impactful." This is a popular prediction at this point. Now, it's a matter of seeing if it comes true.
Following yet another series loss for the Braves on Sunday, Spencer Strider didn’t hold back his thoughts on the club’s performance through the first four months of the season. “It’s embarrassing,” Strider said, via Mark Bowman of MLB.com. “It feels like we’ve had a million opportunities to make adjustments and get headed in the right direction that we think we’re capable of, nobody more so than myself, and we just haven’t been able to do it.” Embarrassing is the perfect word to describe the 2025 Atlanta Braves. Sure, there have been worse teams in franchise history, but not by much. The 2015 Braves, who were smack-dab in the middle of a rebuild, actually were two games better at this point than the 2025 Braves. That team had no expectations and went on to lose a whopping 95 games. To think that a club that has dominated the division for three straight decades, been to the postseason seven straight times, features 11 players that have been named All-Stars in the last five years, and came into the season with the second-best odds to win the World Series could be this horrendous is almost unexplainable. The 2025 Braves haven’t had a win streak longer than four games all season. Meanwhile, they’ve had two separate seven-game losing streaks and have managed to win just one of their last nine series. That’s hard to do unless you’re one of the worst teams in the league, and that’s exactly who Atlanta has been since the opening bell. The Braves own the fourth-worst record in the National League. They are four games worse than the Miami Marlins, and at this rate, they might only finish ahead of the lowly Colorado Rockies at season’s end, who are the worst team in MLB history. Calling this team the most disappointing in franchise history is not enough. This club has been an embarrassment, a black stain on an organization that’s been at the top of the National League for most of the last three decades. Everyone, from ownership to the players, is responsible, and while the future might not be as bleak as the performance on the field this year, it will take a total group effort for the standard to start being met again in Atlanta.