Given the short preparation time for the tournament, which falls in the midst of their domestic season, Steve Cherundolo and his LAFC team will need to hit the ground running against the Blues before facing their other opponents in Group D, Tunis and Flamengo. Chelsea will enter the match as strong favourites, and in Cole Palmer, they possess a potential match-winner.
Since his debut in 2023, Cole Palmer has been involved in more goal contributions than any other player, aside from Liverpool's Mo Salah and Manchester City's Erling Haaland. Although the second half of the 2024/25 season wasn't the best for the England international, Palmer did perform well in the Conference League final, providing two assists for Chelsea, the first player to do so for an English club since Juan Mata in 2013.
Palmer's quality is unquestionable, but he still has a point to prove to his doubters in this tournament. However, he is not the only threat Chelsea poses. If LAFC focuses too much on Palmer's influence, they risk being outplayed by players like Pedro Neto, Noni Madueke, and Nicolas Jackson.
Chelsea has shown that they are a difficult team to beat under Enzo Maresca's management. In their last eight games, they only allowed opponents to score more than once against them once. Moises Caicedo, who recovered possession 229 times, the most of any player in the Premier League, will be a key player to watch in this match.
Olivier Giroud will also be looking to improve on his poor record against Chelsea. Despite scoring a solitary goal against the Blues, he has never really found his footing when facing them. LAFC's Denis Bouanga, who has been amongst the goals this season, will be a player to watch, and Chelsea would be wise not to underestimate him.
LAFC also has important MLS duties to attend to, and getting past the group stage will afford them financial rewards. However, with fixtures against Vancouver, Austin, Colorado, and FC Dallas due before the Club World Cup final, missing out might not be the worst thing in the world. MLS remains their bread and butter, and already being nine points off the lead in the Western Conference is a significant enough reason to not be overly disappointed by an early exit from the CWC.
From FIFA's perspective, a competitive and closely contested match would be far more preferable than a one-sided affair, which would give the Club World Cup no credibility whatsoever.
