Ivory Coast opened its training session to the public at Subaru Park on Friday evening, giving thousands of fans in the Philadelphia area a first close look at the team before Sunday night’s World Cup opener against Ecuador. The crowd came for the moment, and the team gave them one.
About 5,000 people turned out for the free session, which included light 11-on-11 work after the team took its official squad photo. Emerse Faé greeted that reception by saying the team had received a warm welcome since arriving last Saturday, and he urged the crowd on with a blunt message: “We want to see you on Sunday for the win.”
That response matters because Ivory Coast is not passing through the region on a short stop. It has set up base camp at Hotel Du Pont in Wilmington, will train at Subaru Park in Chester, and is expected to remain in the Delaware Valley for at least three weeks during the World Cup. It is also the only nation scheduled to play at the Linc twice during the group stage, which makes every public session in the area feel like part of a longer run rather than a one-off appearance.
The welcome, though, does not change the calendar. Ivory Coast staged a free tuneup friendly against Union II on Monday and won 2-0, but that was a warm-up, not the tournament. Two days after Friday’s session, the team faces Ecuador at Philadelphia Stadium, and from there the question shifts from how the crowd received the squad to how the squad handles the match that starts it all.
For Sam Shovers, that is exactly the point. He bought tickets to Ivory Coast’s final group-stage match against Curaçao at the Linc on June 25 and said he wanted to get as invested and ingratiated in the World Cup vibes as possible. Friday gave him the chance to do that in person. Sunday night will tell whether the good feeling around Didier Drogba’s name in the stands matches the result on the field.
