Win taken in Club World Cup opener!
One word – YES! We emerged winners in a truly epic encounter to start our Club World Cup campaign in style. Oscar Gloukh gave us the lead before the break with a brilliant goal, only for a long pause in play from 19:11 to 20:50 local time due to a storm in Cincinnati to ensue. Our Mexican opponents grabbed an equaliser straight after the resumption, only for Karim Onisiwo to pounce with a header from the bench to send us right to the top of Group H after Al-Hilal and Real Madrid played out a 1-1 draw.
After a strong start to the first half, we let the initiative slip a bit before stepping up again to gain the lead. We had chances for an early opener, only for the Pachuca defence to prove to be alert in the Ohio heat (temperatures close to 29 degrees Celsius).
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After ten minutes we then had a wake-up call as our teenage goalkeeper Christian Zawieschitzky pulled off several saves to deny Los Tuzos on his debut. A real end-to-end battle followed, with Petar Ratkov going within an inch or two of giving us the lead from a Krätzig cross (13′). The best opportunity so far for the Mexican side came after the half-hour mark, as experienced attacker Rondon had a free header in our area. Zawieschitzky got his fingertips to it to tip over (31′).
The Mexican outfit tested our new-look defence (with three new signings) with some extreme pressing at times, but when we got the ball into central areas, we threatened. We could celebrate shortly before the break as Oscar Gloukh was served the ball by Valentin Sulzbacher and promptly dispatched it perfectly into the top corner (42′) – for our Red Bulls’ crucial first World Cup goal.
We faced quite a storm in the second half as black clouds circled around the TQL Stadium. State Law meant the game had to be halted, with the pitch and the stands emptied – as torrential rain and lightning enveloped the arena.
It finally started again at 20:50 local time – but not in the way we wanted. Just seconds after the restart, the Mexicans had a free-kick in a promising position, and Bryan Gonzalez curled it straight in for an equaliser (56′). It took us some time to recover from that shock as Pachuca dominated.
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Our Red Bulls had to battle hard to get their footing in the game again – but battle they did, and the reward duly came! Our captain Mads Bidstrup raced to the byline and sliced a cross in for Karim Onisiwo to head home (78′) and restore our lead!
The final 15 minutes saw us fret as Pachuca threw everyone forward, but our defence was up to the task as we held on to win it!
We therefore go into our second group stage match against Al Hilal as group leaders. See you again at midnight late on Sunday (Austrian time) for that one!
To follow…
Diabate for Sulzbacher, Onisiwo for Ratkov, Vertessen for E. Baidoo (all 55′), Daghim for Gloukh (79′), Mellberg for Krätzig (88′)
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Not available for the match were Alexander Schlager (wrist) and Moussa Yeo (knee). Takumu Kawamura was also out after an injury in training.
