Who: Inter Miami vs Al Ahly
What: FIFA Membership World Cup 2025
The place: Exhausting Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida, United States.
When: Saturday, June 14 – 8pm kickoff (00:00 GMT on Sunday, June 15)
How one can comply with our protection: We’ll have all of the build-up from 6pm (16:00 GMT) on Al Jazeera Sport.
The rebranded and expanded FIFA Membership World Cup kicks off on Saturday, and the organisers have picked a plum tie to launch the 32-team event.
Inter Miami and their star identify, Lionel Messi, tackle essentially the most profitable facet in world soccer – Egyptian giants Al Ahly.
Al Jazeera takes a have a look at the primary match of the monthlong occasion.
How did Inter Miami qualify for the Membership World Cup?
Miami completed because the membership with essentially the most factors in Main League Soccer’s (MLS) common season, handing them a spot on the Membership World Cup as a substitute of LA Galaxy, who received the MLS Cup, which is considered the very best prize within the MLS.
FIFA introduced Miami’s addition to the Membership World Cup in October after they broke MLS’s regular-season factors file with a 6-2 win over New England Revolution to succeed in 74 factors – one higher than the earlier file set by New England in 2021.
How did Al Ahly qualify for the Membership World Cup?
Al Ahly had been topped CAF (Confederation of Africa Soccer) Champions League winners two seasons in the past to qualify for this event.
They had been, nonetheless, dethroned as Africa’s continental kings final season, resulting in the departure of the coach, Marcel Koller, following their loss to Mamelodi Sundowns within the semifinals of CAF’s showpiece.
Jose Riveiro, who coached Orlando Pirates of South Africa final season, has been appointed as the brand new coach, and Inter Miami will mark his first recreation in cost.
Does David Beckham nonetheless co-own Inter Miami?
Former England and Manchester United midfielder David Beckham purchased a $25m stake within the franchise that might change into Inter Miami in 2014. In doing so, he was exercising a clause from his contract throughout his enjoying days with the MLS.
Inter Miami ultimately debuted in 2020 and can also be co-owned by American enterprise magnates, Jorge and Jose Mas, though Beckham could be very a lot the figurehead of the membership.
What number of Membership World Cups has Messi received?
Messi is a two-time winner of the competitors. The Argentine ahead lifted the trophy with Barcelona on each events in 2009 and 2011. He could properly come up towards his supervisor on the time.
A lot of Miami’s probabilities relaxation on Messi’s shoulders. “He’s in good condition this season. There have been moments once we needed to give him a while to relaxation, however he’s performed the final 15 video games, aside from the match towards Dallas once we rested all the squad,” stated Inter supervisor Javier Mascherano.
“We had been additionally lucky he was capable of relaxation throughout Argentina’s final two video games,” he added, referring to Messi enjoying 111 minutes in Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers towards Chile and Colombia earlier this month.
“It’s our accountability to create the appropriate setting for him to shine.”
Are Al Ahly essentially the most profitable membership on the earth?
Al Ahly have received an astonishing 155 trophies, together with their forty fifth league title this season.
That’s balanced towards Actual Madrid’s 15 UEFA Champions League titles on the earth’s premier membership competitors, together with the Spanish giants claiming the La Liga title on 36 events.
Who else is in Inter Miami and Al Ahly’s group?
Brazilian membership Palmeiras and Portuguese giants Porto full Group A.
Right here is the complete checklist of the eight teams:
- Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami
- Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle Sounders
- Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland Metropolis, Boca Juniors, Benfica
- Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, LAFC
- Group E: River Plate, Urawa Purple Diamonds, Monterrey, Inter Milan
- Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan HD FC, Mamelodi Sundowns
- Group G: Manchester Metropolis, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus
- Group H: Actual Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, FC Salzburg
Head-to-head
It is a first assembly between the edges because the Concacaf representatives come face-to-face with the CAF (Confederation of African Soccer) sq. up.
Inter Miami group information
Coach Javier Mascherano has been compelled to re-shuffle his backline attributable to a string of accidents.
Fullback Jordi Alba, fellow defender Gonzalo Lujan and defensive midfielder Yannick Vivid have all been dominated out of the Group A conflict.
“Hopefully they are going to be obtainable for the second recreation,” Mascherano informed a information convention on Friday.
Alba, certainly one of Messi’s former Barcelona teammates, is sidelined with a hamstring situation. There have been additionally considerations relating to the health of centre-back David Martinez.
“David had some form of ache yesterday, and we didn’t need to take any dangers,” stated Mascherano.
“The truth is that all through the season, the group have handled accidents, however the gamers who stepped in rose to the problem. That provides us peace of thoughts,” he stated.
Al Ahly group information
The Egyptian facet have been within the US for 2 weeks and have already performed a warm-up match towards fellow Membership World Cup individuals Pachuca. The Mexican membership received 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw on Sunday.
Riveiro has a totally match squad to select from, which is spearheaded by former Aston Villa ahead Mahmoud Trezeguet.
How a lot does the Membership World Cup winner obtain?
The whole prize pot is $1bn, with the champions incomes as much as $125m.
About half of the $1bn will likely be divided between the 32 golf equipment, with the quantity per membership primarily based on sporting and industrial standards.
