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FedExField to Host Soccer Match


June 16, 2005



The Washington Redskins announced Thursday that FedExField will host a soccer match between the DC United of Major League Soccer and Chelsea Football Club of the English Premier League. The match will take place at FedExField on July 28 at 8 p.m.
Details on tickets will be available at a later date.


Chelsea's Damien Duff is congratulated after a goal in the English Premier League. (AP Photo)
The D.C. United-Chelsea match highlights the four-match 2005 World Series of Football. The week-long series of games will also include 2005 UEFA Champion's League runner-up A.C. Milan playing the three-time Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and 1998 MLS Cup Champion Chicago Fire at Soldier Field.

The United match with Chelsea marks the first time that the reigning champions of the Major League Soccer and the English Premier League have squared off.

In existence since 1905, Chelsea won the 2005 English Premiership with 95 points on the campaign, posting a record of 29 wins, eight ties and only one loss. The 2005 crown was Chelsea's first League title in 50 years, having last claimed the honors in 1955.


D.C. United's Freddy Adu fends off an opponent. (AP Photo)
Among the club's international stars are English national team regulars Joe Cole (M), John Terry (D), and Frank Lampard (M), Ireland's Damien Duff (M), Arjen Robben (M) of Holland, Iceland's Eidur Gudjohnsen (F), France's Claude Makelele (M) and Ivory Coast's Didier Drogba (F).

Chelsea is owned by Russian businessman Roman Abramovich and is led by manager José Mourinho, who managed FC Porto to the Champion's League title prior to joining the English club in June of 2004.

As a charter member of Major League Soccer, United won the first ever MLS Cup by defeating the Los Angeles Galaxy 3-2 in the League's inaugural 1996 season. D.C. dominated the early years of MLS, making four consecutive appearances in the MLS Cup Championship game, also winning in 1997 and 1999.

In 2004, United won their League-high fourth MLS Cup, defeating Kansas City 3-2 under the direction of former Polish international Peter Nowak. Led by the club's all-time leading scorer Jaime Moreno, United also features U.S. national team pool players Alecko Eskandarian, Ben Olsen, Nick Rimando and Clyde Simms and rising star Freddy Adu on the current squad.