Club World Cup Monday: Mexico Beats USMNT 2-1 in Gold Cup Final, FIFA Slashes Semifinal Tickets From $473 to $13

exico wins 10th Gold Cup title with 2-1 victory over USMNT in Houston. FIFA drops Club World Cup semifinal ticket prices 97% in 72 hours - Chelsea vs Fluminense and PSG vs Real Madrid tomorrow at MetLife Stadium.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Calaruga, Shark Media, I'm Jamie Rudd, and Sunday Night delivered
exactly what Mexico needed and exactly what the USMNT didn't
want before next year's World Cup. Let me start with
the Gold Cup final and then we'll get to FIFA's

(00:23):
absolutely mental ticket pricing strategy for the Club World Cup semifinals.
Mexico beat the United States two to one in Houston
last night, and honestly, it was probably the result most
people expected once the teams were announced. Eltree dominated possession
with sixty percent, had twelve corner kicks to none for

(00:43):
the Americans, and generally looked like the better side for
most of the match. The USMNT started brilliantly, though Chris
Richards opened the scoring in the fourth minute with a
brilliant header that deflected off the crossbar and just made
it over the line. For a brief moment, you thought
Mauricio Pochettino might have pulled off something special with this

(01:05):
patchwork squad, but reality kicked in quickly. Raoul Jimenez equalized
in the twenty seventh minute with a clinical left footed
finish past Matthew Freezy, scoring his forty second international goal.
Third most in Mexican history. After scoring, Jimenez paid tribute
to Diogo Jota. The winner came from Edson Alvarez in

(01:29):
the second half, getting on the end of a set
piece to flick the ball past Freeze. The goal was
initially ruled out for offside, but var gave it after
review sending the majority Mexican crowd of seventy thousand, nine
hundred twenty five into absolute mayhem. For Pochettino, this tournament
was always about evaluation rather than silverware. The USMNT were

(01:54):
missing many regular starters because of injuries, vacation, and the
Club World Cup, so this was his chance to look
at fringe players who could push for World Cup spots.
While all that was happening in Houston, the Club World
Cup was making headlines for all the wrong reasons. The
Athletic has revealed that FIFA dropped ticket prices for Tuesday's

(02:17):
Chelsea versus Fluminensey semifinal from four hundred seventy three dollars
to thirteen dollars and forty cents in just seventy two hours.
That means you can now get into a Club World
Cup semifinal for less than the price of a cheese
steak fifteen or beer fourteen inside MetLife Stadium. Lower ring

(02:39):
tickets are down to forty four dollars and sixty cents.
It's absolutely mental. The other semifinal PSG versus Real Madrid
saw similar chaos. Standard admission was nine hundred seventy eight
dollars on Wednesday, down to one hundred ninety nine dollars
and sixty cents by Saturday, then jumped to two hundred

(03:00):
sixty six dollars and sixty cents within minutes of PSG
beating Bayern, before falling back to one hundred ninety nine
dollars and sixty cents by halftime of the last quarter final.
The group stage averaged over thirty five thousand fans per game,
which sounds decent until you realize many venues had tens

(03:21):
of thousands of empty seats. FIFA has been desperately trying
to fill stadiums as the tournament progressed, offering volunteers four
complimentary tickets and asking them not to wear their uniforms
when attending, presumably so they look like paying customers. This
dynamic pricing model is apparently coming to next year's World

(03:41):
Cup two, which should be terrifying for anyone planning to attend.
Imagine paying one thousand dollars for a World Cup match
and then watching tickets drop to fifty dollars the day
before kickoff. Chelsea versus Flumenense is Tuesday at three pm.
Paris San Jermain will play Real Madrid on Wednesday. I'm

(04:01):
Jamie Rudd. I'm back at it tomorrow