Juventus’ Club World Cup-opening victory over Al Ain this past Wednesday night was very much about the collective of the attacking trio sharing the goal scoring load. Four days later, it was not three players combining to score five goals and leading Juventus to victory.
Instead, it was Juventus’ No. 10 playing the leading role at the home of the reigning Super Bowl champions.
On a day when Kenan Yildiz scored a hat trick but only got credit for two of those goals, Juve’s young rising star from Turkiye was the go-to man time and time again. The two goals that he got credit for were two of the best goals we’ve seen a Juventus player score over the past 12 months, with his brace (and shoulda-been hat trick) leading the Bianconeri to a 4-1 win over Moroccan side Wydad Casablanca on a steamy Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia. It was Juventus’ second win by three or more goals in as many games to begin the Club World Cup, giving them a nice potential advantage of goal differential heading into next week’s group stage finale in Orlando assuming Manchester City doesn’t absolutely steamroll Al Ain even more than Juve did in their tournament opener.
But really, all of that will be figured out before Sunday’s schedule is done and over with.
For now, I can’t help but remind you about the two words going at Juventus these days:
Kenan Yildiz.
Yeah, it’s Yildiz. It’s always going to be Yildiz. With so much else uncertain at the club, there is a 20-year-old star in the making who has become the biggest reason for hope ever since he made his senior team debut a year and a half ago. So much so you’ve already got memes popping up on the internet about how important he is to this team in this current moment — which, on top of being handed the No. 10 jersey while he was still 19 years old, probably isn’t too far form the truth.
The thing is, Yildiz has shown he’s more than willing to deliver.
He scored in his first-ever Club World Cup appearance. That is added to the list of scoring in his first Serie A start, in his first Champions League start, in his first Coppa Italia start and his first Supercoppa start. Hell, he probably scored the first time he played as himself when the FIFA video game was still called FIFA on the video game console of his liking. That’s just what he does.
Against Wydad — and opponent that very much made this game in Philly feel a little bit like it was being played in Morocco with the atmosphere at Lincoln Financial Field — Yildiz once against put forth the kind of class we’ve come to expect from him.
His first goal, although still technically an own goal, was a nifty little finish, even if it did take a rather large deflection. His second goal was an banger if there ever was one, and the sole reason why I got a text from Sam a few weeks ago saying he was going to wait on his Best Goals of the Season list just in case we got something good from the Club World Cup. His third goal, although technically his second, was just so good because he see him pull the brakes on the man marking him, watches him go by, take another little touch to compose himself and then finish it easy.
That’s just the growing repertoire of Yildiz on full display — and he’s showing that he can hurt you in so many different ways as a goal scorer.
There of course will be those who said “Well, it’s just Wydad” just as they said “Well, it’s just Al Ain” a few days ago. That’s fine. But let’s not diminish what Yildiz has done to open this tournament no matter who Juventus’ first two opponents have been. It’s not like this Club World Cup group stage was ever going to see Juve play a big-name club every time they stepped onto the field, and facing Al Ain and Wydad in the first two fixtures allowed Yildiz and the entire team to try and get some serious momentum going heading into their meeting with Manchester City to close out the group stage.
So here we are, through the first two group stage fixtures, and Juve’s got nine goals to their name and have a very good chance of finishing atop Group G with a positive result against City next week.
This is very much a good development for Juventus no matter how you feel about the Club World Cup on the whole. (And it’s not perfect by any means!) Yildiz coming out and playing the way he has to begin the tournament is a pretty good development, too. These two things are very much connected, but it’s hard not to overstate just how important this young man has become to this club ever since we saw him score that first goal of his against Frosinone right before Christmas in 2023.
He’s got a little bit of a different look now compared to when he first signed with Juventus and was rocking a ponytail in 2022. But the fact that he is truly start to fulfill the massive potential he has in that incredibly strong frame of his — and it’s becoming a joy to watch.
No matter if it’s in Serie A, the Champions League or now the Club World Cup — just keep on scoring those goals, young man and you’ll be doing quite alright.
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
- Seriously, though … FIFA, just give Yildiz the hat trick! He celebrated like he thought he had it after what was technically his second goal. It should be his third. Let him enjoy it!
- That goal that Yildiz scored that should have given him the hat trick was in the 69th minute, by the way. Fitting that it was pretty nice.
- How hot was it in Philadelphia during Sunday’s game? Well, it took Yildiz less than a half to completely sweat through his jersey, with it almost looking see-through at the first-half cooling break.
- Also notable that Igor Tudor didn’t go with a suit for the second straight game in which very warm weather was present. Tudor instead went with his training kit fit — which, based on early returns, is a very nice look compared to some previous editions adidas has rolled out.
- This game was kinda funny because outside of the goals Juventus scored, they didn’t record another shot on goal the entire time.
- Juventus were also outshot by Wydad (15-9) and needed a couple of big Michele Di Gregorio saves to ensure that this wasn’t a 3-2 scoreline heading into the stretch run.
- This game also feature a combined 32 fouls. Not exactly one that had a good flow to it.
- Also not very good? Andrea Cambiaso’s marking on the Wydad goal. He probably could have positioned better — and the team as a whole for that matter on a throw in — and certainly got beat for pace before Thembinkosi Lorch chipped it over Di Gregorio. Not great, Bob.
- It definitely was the kind of game where some of the big performers from the win over Al Ain weren’t as good against Wydad. Was that because of the quick turnaround? I don’t know. I think I feel safe in saying that Wydad are a better team than Al Ain, and not just because they actually scored a nice goal against Juventus. But it was definitely noticeable that the likes of Francisco Conceição, Alberto Costa and a few others weren’t as lively as they were a few days earlier.
- That being said, Khephren Thuram continues to be awesome and it sure is going to be fun watching him develop at Juventus. He just does so many things well and looks to be taking quite a liking to how Tudor wants him to play.
- The unfortunate thing about Yildiz’s first goal being called an own goal and that he doesn’t get to claim a hat trick is that we can’t say “Khephren Thuram, assist leader at the Club World Cup.” He’s now just one of a handful of players tied on two assists.
- Bet you didn’t have Nicolo Savona leading Juventus in touches during a Club World Cup game, but that happened in the Wydad win and I’m just going to leave that here.
- Good on Dusan Vlahovic for drawing a penalty and then scoring it. With Randal Kolo Muani doing what he did against Al Ain and the constant rumors of Vlahovic leaving, it’s definitely got a feeling of him being a bit of a forgotten figure right now. But he’s still here!
- I was hoping for a bit of a Teun Koopmeiners revival at the Club World Cup. We haven’t exactly gotten that so far, have we?
- But hey, nice to see Nico Gonzalez and Manuel Locatelli get a few minutes, so there’s that.
- So now we get to see what Juventus can do against Man City with the top spot in Group G on the line on Thursday. That should be a pretty good measuring stick to see where both clubs are at right now. Hopefully it goes a little bit like the last time they played. I would totally be OK with something like that.
