The first week of the Club World Cup in Philadelphia was underlined by fans of one of the big clubs in Brazil, Flamengo, creating a big scene.
This weekend, the city will host two other Brazilian giants.
Palmeiras de São Paulo and Botafogo de Rio de Janeiro will meet in the round of 16 at noon at Lincoln Financial Field. The two teams have large fans bases, in particular Palmeiras, whose supporters presented a show at the Times Square in New York before their first match at the Metlife Stadium. A few days later, they did it again on the Brooklyn bridge.
Palmeiras could feel especially at home, because his jerseys are green and white. Some fans of the Eagles may remember that this is what triggered controversy when the birds played in São Paulo last year at the home of the fierce Rival of Palmeiras, Corinthians.
In the group phase, Palmeiras equaled Portugal Porto, beaten Al Ahly from Egypt, then came from behind dramatically to equalize Inter Miami of Lionel Messi and take first place in the last minutes. The first two of these matches were in the Meadowlands, and the last was in Miami, which allowed the fans of Palmeiras to stay together on the East Coast.
Botafogo played its group phase in the west, in Pasadena, California and Seattle, and had its own part of drama. Botafogo finished second in a group which ended with three equality with Paris Saint-Germain Français, the winner of the newly crowned Champions League and Spain in Atlético Madrid.
“Find out more: Flamengo and his fans rugged in Chelsea in a thriller of the World Cup
Each team had six points, with two victories. The first equality break was head-to-head, and they each had a victory and a defeat against the other. The second equality break was the difference in goals in these matches: PSG Beat Atlético, 4-0, Botafogo beat PSG, 1-0, then Atlético beat Botafogo, 1-0.
This left the difference in PSG goals to Plus-3, Botafogo is 0 and Atlético is in Minus-1-making the Spanish club the first major European team to be eliminated.
Palmeiras and Botafogo have several former MLS players in their teams. The first are Facundo Torres (Orlando City) and Micael (Houston Dynamo); The latter are Jefferson Savarino (Real Salt Lake) Santiago Rodríguez (New York City FC), Elias Manoel (New York Red Bulls) and Gregore (Inter Miami), although it is suspended because of the accumulation of yellow cards.
Fans will also see a trio of Brazilian phenomena. For Botafogo, striker Igor Jesus could move to the Nottingham forest in England this summer. For Palmeiras, the 18 -year -old winger, Estévão, will join Chelsea after the tournament, and striker Vitor Roque rebounded to be a bust in Barcelona.
It was not lost for the philadelphia fans that Miami had kept the victory over Palmeiras, Messi and Company would have won their group and will come here. This would have brought the most famous player in the world to LINC for the first time. He played twice at Subaru Park against the Union and missed Argentina’s match in March 2024 at the Eagles home due to an injury.
In addition to that, if Botafogo had attached or beaten Atlético, PSG would have come here and would have become the first European champion prevailing to play a game in the region since Chelsea faced the MLS All-Stars of Subaru Park in 2012.
“Find out more: Fans of Flamengo and Hope illuminated the city, then the first match of the Linc of the Club World Cup
There will always be a big scene here with the two Brazilian clubs. There will certainly be a thunderous atmosphere, whatever the size of the crowd – and it should be quite large.
But if you deplored what could have been with PSG-Miami, you are forgiven. At least, there are other big games as consolation: England Chelsea against Tunisia’s specime on Tuesday evening, and Spanish Real Madrid – the most popular club team in the world – against the Red Bull Salzburg in Austria on Thursday.
The winner of Palmeiras-Botafogo will remain in town for a quarter-final of July 4 against the winner of group D or the finalist of group C. The first is the Benfica of Portugal, who upset Bayern Munich of Germany, 1-0, in heat at 97 degrees in Charlotte, NC, the latter will be decided by the result of Chelsea-Ecurance. Chelsea would have room with victory or equality.
This 16 -year -old will also be played on Saturday (4 p.m.) in Charlotte. PSG-Miami will be played the next day at noon in Atlanta.
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