Wrexham executive director Humphrey Ker says America’s reaction to the team this summer has exceeded their wildest expectations.
The Welsh club have become one of the most talked-about teams in the world since Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took charge 30 months ago.
The ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ docuseries has seen the club wins hearts and minds across the world, with that blossoming fandom clear during this summer’s US tour.
More than 50,000 were in attendance for last week’s friendly against Chelsea in North Carolina and many of the 34,248 at Tuesday’s friendly against Manchester United’s youngsters were rooting for the League Two club.
“It’s been extraordinary, really,” actor and club executive director Ker told the PA news agency.
“We hoped with the success of the documentary that people would turn out to see us and visit us and be happy to have us here.
“It’s exceeded our wildest expectations, really, in every stop on the journey.”
Ker has found the lengths people have gone to in the US to watch Wrexham “pretty humbling”, underlining a growth that shows few signs of slowing.
Asked if the club’s rapid rise has surpassed his expectations, he said: “Oh, definitely.
“We always felt that with a bit of an injection of money and love and attention, the club could start to rise up the ranks in the UK.
“But to be at this stage after two and a half years of being in the US, playing a team like Manchester United in front of a sold out 35,000 crowd is pretty extraordinary.”
Wrexham won Tuesday’s match 3-1 against 10-man United in San Diego after recovering from star striker Paul Mullin’s early injury at Snapdragon Stadium.
It was a memorable victory but the League Two club have tried to make the experience about more than the match, bringing a little slice of Wales with them to the US with their fan fest.
“It’s very cool,” Ker said. “We’ve been pretty overwhelmed with the response to everything.
“I think I think we’ve tried to meet enthusiasm with enthusiasm. I talked to a couple today, they came in from Colorado this morning, some folk they come from Utah, they come from all over the US.
“So, we want to make sure there’s a good thing for them to attend.”
McElhenney was loving Tuesday’s match – a game fellow owner Reynolds had to watch from afar as he is filming Deadpool 3 in the UK.
“I think he slightly cursed our names when he worked out that he was going to be in the UK for the summer and we were going to be over here,” Ker said with a smile about Reynolds’ absence.
“But, you know, the great thing about that is it gives them lots of opportunities to come and see league games. We’re back in action in about 10 days’ time so he’ll have his chance.”
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
Al-Riyadh 0-1 Al-Nassr: Mane hands visitors bragging rights
Sadio Mane's first-half strike ensured Al-Nassr maintained their unbeaten start to the Saudi Pro League season with a 1-0 win over rivals Al-Riyadh.
He smartly finished from close range in the 41st minute, with his goal enough to seal the three points and move Al-Nassr up to third in the table.
Al-Nassr's threat grew as the first half went on, with Milan Borjan making a fine double stop to deny Ronaldo and Talisca once again before Mohamed Simakan struck the post on the rebound.
Mane would eventually break the deadlock in the 41st minute though, darting in front of his marker to meet Abdulrahman Ghareeb's low cross and rifle it into the roof of the net.
The Senegalese striker arguably should have doubled his tally before the break, but was denied by Borjan's stretching save when one-on-one with the Canadian.
Talisca should have wrapped up the points in the final three minutes, but he blazed over an empty net from close range, before having a late goal disallowed for offside.
Data Debrief: Derby delight for Al-Nassr
After drawing their last two matches, this win was a welcome result for Al-Nassr as they racked up their sixth victory of the season to close the gap at the top of the table to six points.
It is just the second time Al-Nassr have avoided defeat in their first 10 matches of a Pro League campaign, last doing so in 2013-14, when they won the league title.
They are now unbeaten in their last seven Pro League derbies (W4 D3), their longest such streak since a run of nine between 2018 and 2020.
This is the first time in eight such games that they have kept a clean sheet though, and limited their opponents to just five shots throughout.
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