England's Chelsea enjoying sights on U.S. tour

                    

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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- It was the kind of thing Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole could only dream about doing back in London. After arriving in Los Angeles with the rest of his teammates on Wednesday and checking into the swanky Beverly Hills Hotel, Cole decided to go for a walk.

"I went down Rodeo Drive, which is a lovely place," said Cole, who blended in nicely with the other pedestrians walking the famed street who wouldn't know the difference between Joe Cole and Cole Hahn. "After that I went to Venice Beach and saw the big guys lifting weights. I was going to go in there myself but they didn't have dumb bells that small in there."

While Cole was planning on more sightseeing while Chelsea trained in L.A. through Aug. 3 before flying to Chicago to play the MLS All-Stars on Aug. 5, teammate John Terry said he would probably follow suit. "I think I'm going to follow Joe around now," said Terry. "Maybe he can show me the ropes."

For Chelsea -- two-time winners of the English Premier League and one of the most star-studded sides in soccer -- training and playing in the States the past three summers has been an interesting experience as it is quite possibly the only country in the world where these world class, multimillion-dollar players can roam unnoticed.

"People don't recognize you in America because obviously football isn't as big as the other sports," Cole said. "So I was strolling down Rodeo Drive and no one recognized me, so that was nice."

While the team may be able to go into public relatively unnoticed, that was hardly the case when they put on their signature blue jerseys and took the field this weekend for training sessions. When the team arrived on the campus of UCLA for closed training sessions on the school's intramural fields, a throng of about 100 fans wearing Chelsea jerseys and shirts lined up outside the gated fields each day.

"We've seen the last couple of years that the amount of support and following has improved," said Terry. "It's a nice feeling when we go for training and see all those supporters and hopefully there'll be many more supporters of Chelsea in the future."

After the team finished its hour-long practice Saturday with Pauley Pavilion and the brick stone buildings of UCLA serving as a backdrop, the stars come off the field one by one, from newly signed Andriy Shevchenko to Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba to Michael Essien, Arjen Robben to Petr Cech. Sneaking through the media and under the ropes keeping the press back was Chelsea owner and Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, wearing loafers, shorts and white shirt. Abramovich raced after the exiting players, patting Shevchenko on the back after the forward, who made a $55 million transfer to Chelsea from AC Milan this summer, credited the relentless owner with luring him to the Blues.