By Julien Pretot and Amy Tennery
MIAMI/NEW YORK (Reuters) -Partying South American fans may have set the Club World Cup alight but unfortunately for hosts the United States, that carnival-like atmosphere has not swept across the country as some matches are being contested in front of modest crowds.
FIFA had hoped the expanded version of the tournament featuring many of the world’s top clubs would build enthusiasm for soccer in a country historically ambivalent to the beautiful game, as the U.S. prepares to co-host the 2026 World Cup with Canada and Mexico.
With some 1.5 million tickets sold only days into the tournament, a chasm remains between the “haves” and the “have-nots” of the host cities.
In just two games, Boca Juniors have taken Hard Rock Stadium by storm, turning it into their own ‘Bombonera’ outpost, filling it with a passion unmatched at this Club World Cup.
The Boca fans made up the majority of the 55,574 spectators for the game against Benfica and it was a similar story among the 63,587 supporters present for Friday’s 2-1 defeat by Bayern Munich.
“I’ve had a long career and experienced a lot. There are times I want to be a player and tonight was one of those times,” Bayern coach Vincent Kompany said after the Boca game.
“They (the Boca Juniors fans) are special. The crowd was hostile in the best possible way … that’s what I love about football. Many fans would pay to watch that.”
The atmosphere created by the Boca fans, along with the presence of Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi for the opening game of the tournament and the visit of Real Madrid, has made Miami Gardens the capital of soccer in the U.S. with an average attendance of 60,626.
Hard Rock Stadium, which has hosted the Super Bowl six times, has a capacity of nearly 66,000.
Messi, meanwhile, was the architect of soccer history after his stunning free kick secured Inter Miami a 2-1 win over Porto on Thursday, marking the first time that a CONCACAF team had defeated a European side in an official FIFA tournament.
With Botafogo pulling off a shock 1-0 win over Champions League winners Paris St Germain and Flamengo beating Chelsea 3-1, it has been a good first week for Brazilian clubs in the tournament that expanded to 32 teams from seven in the last edition.
“I love when I see Botafogo, all the Brazilian teams, Argentinian teams, how they celebrate, how they are together, I love them,” Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola told reporters.
“I like how all the games are tight, except one or two, and people are surprised, European teams lose. Welcome to the real world. Welcome to the real world my friends.”
Unsurprisingly, the super-sized field has produced some lop-sided results, with Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich thrashing Auckland City, a team made up of amateur players, 10-0 in their opener.
‘NOT EASY’
While some host cities have had no problem getting the party started, including Los Angeles, which welcomed 80,619 to the Rose Bowl for its first match of the tournament between PSG and Atletico Madrid, others have struggled.
A Tuesday match between Ulsan and Mamelodi Sundowns kicked off around 7:00 pm in Orlando in front of 3,412 fans at the 25,500-capacity Inter&Co Stadium, while a 6 p.m. match in Cincinnati on Wednesday between Pachuca and Salzburg brought in just 5,282 spectators at the 26,000-capacity TQL Stadium.
“The environment was a bit strange,” Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca told reporters after the Premier League team beat MLS side LAFC 2-0 in front of little more than 22,000 fans at Atlanta’s 71,000-capacity Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
A big challenge for organisers has been filling the stands in enormous venues more often used for United States’ national addiction – NFL football – with as many as four matches per day in the group stage.
While smaller, soccer-specific stadiums abound in the U.S., the Club World Cup gives organisers a chance to test out some of the venues FIFA expects to be filled to the brim at the 2026 World Cup.
If FIFA was hoping that locals would snap up tickets to watch a world class soccer tournament on their doorstep, the evidence suggests it will be the travelling fans, rather than Americans, who will be scrambling to secure seats for next year’s World Cup.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot in Miami and Amy Tennery in New York, additional reporting by Fernando Kallas in Philadelphia and Janina Nuno Rios in Mexico City, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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