Fernando Torres and Roberto Di Matteo
On the eve of the Herbalife World Football Challenge exhibition match between Chelsea and AC Milan, Chelsea’s Striker Fernando Torres and Manager Roberto Di Matteo sat in front of the South Florida media members and shared their thoughts about today’s game as well as their upcoming season in the Barclays Premier League. “It’s amazing to come to America,” said Torres, “It’s something different than Europe and I always enjoy that.” Torres is in the midst of an amazing career run having been a part of the 2010 World Cup Champion Spanish National Team, champions league title with Chelsea this past season, and then going on to win the 2012 UEFA European Championship earlier this summer. “It’s been an amazing summer for us. The Euros meant everything. But now I’m looking forward to the challenge, looking forward to the season.”
The challenge for both Torres and Chelsea this season will be life without Didier Drogba. Torres seems prepared. “I’m looking forward to it. The game winner was inspiration in champions league.” He, as the rest of the team are using these international friendly matches as a chance to get fit, find their legs, and prepare for the long season ahead. “We’re playing against a great team [tomorrow]. Looking forward to finding my legs.”
As for Roberto Di Matteo, his off-season was swirling with speculation that he may not even be returning as the Manager of the club despite the success he was able to bring to Chelsea by winning the Champions League Title. With all that now behind him, Di Matteo can now focus on the entire season ahead as well as attempting to repeat as the Champions of European club football. When asked if he was ready to make his own personal imprint on the team he replied by saying, “There won’t be any radical changes. We have a lot of good players.” A very wise move on his part considering the changes he implemented last season paid off immediately. As for today’s match with AC Milan, Di Matteo is, “looking to improve their performance from Wednesday.” The performance Di Matteo alluded to was his teams performance against the MLS All-Stars on Wednesday night in Philadelphia where the MLS All-Stars got the better of his club and defeated them 3-2.