De George: For all the noise, Philly’s Club World Cup introduction has been electric

PHILADELPHIA — You would’ve been at risk for whiplash if you’d followed the buildup to the FIFA Club World Cup too closely.

You would’ve seen FIFA president Gianni Infantino and President Donald Trump palling around in the Oval Office surrounded by gaudy golden trophies.

You would’ve seen one espousing the glory of international collaboration and openness over the other’s mobilization of a program of mass deportation.

You would’ve heard touts of the world’s game descending on American cities to be welcomed by immigration enforcement bragging about their presence securing stadiums.

And you would’ve seen one of the clubs, Juventus, led by a pair of American players, standing as a backdrop to the Resolute Desk ahead of a game in Washington while the leader of the free world contemplated military strikes on Iran.

And if you listened closely enough to the whistles from Wydad or the drums of Flamengo at Lincoln Financial Field, it might have drowned it all out, if just for 90 minutes.

Three games in Philadelphia this week have offered a glimpse into sporting cultures that Americans rarely get to see. It has validated much of what FIFA uses as its money-making hype, and it has offered a fitting preview of what the city will see next year when the World Cup comes to town.

All week, city life in Philadelphia has been dotted with soccer fans.

The red and black hoops of fans of Flamengo, the Brazilian club that opened the tournament Monday and defeated Chelsea 3-1 on Friday, have been present around town all week.

Monday’s match included a brief shutdown of traffic at Broad Street and Pattison Avenue as several thousand fans of Esperance Sportive de Tunis carrying flags and decked out in red and yellow marched to the stadium after staging in FDR Park. Stickers proclaiming the presence of Tunis’ Curva Sud fan group are papered around the complex.

Wednesday’s noon match between Manchester City and Wydad AC of Morocco was enlivened by the red-clad supporters from Casablanca.

A delegation of their fan group, the Ultras Winners 2005, convened in Philadelphia from homes all over the world, many based in Morocco. They started the game with a tifo depicting the club taking on Route 66 with the title of “the Moroccan team following the American dream.” The 2-0 loss seemed to little dampen it by game’s end.

Then Friday was Flamengo’s turn on a proper stage, against Chelsea with a chance for the South American club to take aim at a European giant. Led by Filipe Luis, who retired from Flamengo in 2023 and took over as its manager a year later after a career that included a season with Chelsea, they went behind early, went up 2-1, then up a man on the way to a 3-1 victory.

“I love it,” Luis was saying, “and it was a special day for me and for our club.”

Friday’s crowd resolved into little more than primary colors.

The blue of Chelsea. The red (and black) of Flamengo. The yellow of Brazil, if former Chelsea players Thiago Silva, Oscar or David Luiz were your guys and you needed a hedge.

Red and black balloons released by Flamengo fans floated through the Linc, finding their way on the pitch to roll like tumbleweeds for most of the game. The Flamengo end of the field was a cauldron of noise, erupting long before the game was on their terms.

Walking the concourse during the game belied the action on the field, with so many of the people who paid for tickets in rapt attention for as long as the ball was in play.

Attendance, like elsewhere in the tournament, has been uneven.

A crowd of 25,797 gathered Monday for a 9 p.m. local kickoff. Many of the tournament’s biggest draws had yet to play in the tournament, in its inaugural version and requiring more explanation than FIFA has thus far provided.

The first European power, Man City, even with a noon weekday kickoff, brought 37,446 spectators.

Friday featured the first game in which the full stadium was available for ticket sale. The clubs responded with a crowd of 54,019, the 10th-largest crowd ever to watch soccer at the Linc.

FIFA has its many flaws. It does itself no favors by constantly displaying them, by choosing to play politics while saying that its soccer plays no such politics. Separating the world-class quality of the soccer from the entity that brings it into being is cognitively difficult.

But at the center of that messiness is the soccer and the people that make it great. And through the first three installments of eight in South Philadelphia, the soccer has been excellent and the environment has been intense.

The other factors won’t go away, this summer or next. But for as long as the culture and passion at the center wins out, sports fans will, too.

Contact Matthew De George at mdegeorge@delcotimes.com.