MetLife Stadium will host its most high-profile group stage match of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup on Tuesday at noon ET when Group F favorites, German giants Borussia Dortmund and legendary Fluminense of Brazil, open their respective tournaments in the shadow of New York City.
Dortmund has been one of the most recognizable clubs of the German Bundesliga over the last 30 years, perhaps only second to powerhouse Bayern Munich. But after making the UEFA Champions League Final last season, they are trying to finish a difficult year with a flourish at the Club World Cup.
They finished fourth in the Bundesliga, were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, and could not get past the second round of the DFB-Pokal, Germany’s domestic cup. This prompted the Black & Yellow to fire manager Niri Sahin in January and turn to Niko Kovac, who helped guide the club back to Champions League play next season with that fourth-place finish.
Dortmund has shown an affinity for scoring goals, doing so 44 times in just 20 matches since Kovac’s arrival. Their side has taken on a new, intriguing dimension with the signing of the highly-touted 19-year-old Jobe Bellingham from Sunderland. His brother, Jude, is a star for England who plays his club soccer with the legendary Real Madrid in Spain.
“Our expectations are clear,” Kovac said of his side’s ambitions at the Club World Cup. “Every team first wants to get through the group stage and then progress through each round. It’s exactly the same for us. I make no bones about that. We’re certainly the favorites in this group, together with Fluminense. We have to finish in the first two places.
“We know the other two teams [in Group F, South Korea’s Ulsan HD and South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns] aren’t going there for a holiday either; they also want to be successful, so we need to turn up with the seriousness and the respect that’s required to achieve our aims.”
An opening match against Fluminense provides a stiff first test. The second-most successful club in Rio de Janeiro, behind Flamengo, has had an inconsistent start to 2025. They currently sit fifth in Brasileirão, Brazil’s top-flight league, and lost in the Cariocão final in March to bitter rivals Flamengo.
To make things even more difficult for the sputtering side, star striker German Cano is out due to a knee injury. But there is no shortage of quality on this roster, specifically defender Thiago Silva, who starred for AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, and Chelsea in his younger years.
There is also the style of attractive, free-flowing Brazilian soccer that will provide a different sort of challenge for Dortmund.
“Brazilian teams are always top, and Fluminense have been very successful in the past, so we can certainly expect the two teams to be the favorites in the group,” Kovac said. “You need to get points on the board in the first match because with the first match at a tournament, it’s always important to get up and running because in the second and third match, you either have pressure or you can approach it a bit more ‘relaxed’, so the first match certainly sets the direction for the next two, which is why it will be very important for us but equally for Fluminense to come out on top in this match.”
