Stateside Soccer: Your Guide to Premier League Summer Friendlies Pt.1

By on July 12, 2016

With Euro 2016 and the Copa America Centenario complete, the soccer world’s attention turns to the preseason preparations of the world’s biggest clubs.  As nine Premier League sides venture across the pond to the United States this summer to play a total of seventeen different friendly matches, we offer our guide to the summer of soccer ahead.  In Part One we look at the schedules of Arsenal to Crystal Palace.

Arsenal

28 July AT&T All-Stars (Avaya Stadium, San Jose) 7.30pm

Tickets: $100-$700

Arsenal’s preseason tour to the United States has been over a year in the making.  In May of 2015, Major League Soccer announced that Avaya Stadium of the San Jose Earthquakes would play host to the 2016 MLS All-Star Game later this month and Arsenal were already in talks to be the All-Star team’s opponents.

Multiple Arsenal representatives flew out to the States for February’s press conference, including ambassador Freddie Ljungberg, who coaches the Arsenal Under-15 team.

“As soon as we put it out internally that we’re coming to California, there were lots of hands that went up to come on the trip,” laughed Arsenal Partnership Development Director Alex Wicks.
The Gunners will spend All-Star week, which will include a range of festivities in downtown San Jose, training ahead of the game in San Jose.

1 August Chivas de Guadalajara (StubHub Center, LA) 2am

Tickets: $70-$500

After the All-Star game, Arsenal will head down the West Coast to Los Angeles, where they will face Mexican side Chivas de Guadalajara at the LA Galaxy’s StubHub Center.

Bournemouth

19 July Minnesota United (National Sports Centre Stadium, Minnesota) 8pm

Tickets: <$82

Bournemouth are already in Chicago, where they are spending ten days training before facing NASL and soon-to-be MLS club Minnesota United on Wednesday, July 20th at 8,000-seat stadium Nation Sports Center in Blaine, MN.

Said Bournemouth Chief Executive Neill Blake, per MN United’s official website: “Last year the first-team traveled to Philadelphia and it proved to be incredibly beneficial.  It’s important that pre-season preparations are done correctly and we’re pleased that we will be traveling to America once again. Not only will the trip provide the squad with important time together both on and off the training pitches, but it will also be great to play our first game of pre-season against Minnesota United.”

Previously, MN United hosted Swansea City in 2014 and Club Leon of Mexico in a recent friendly.

Chelsea

27 July Liverpool (Rose Bowl, Pasadena) 11.30pm

Tickets: $30-$250

Premier League giants Chelsea and Liverpool will clash in Los Angeles at the Rose Bowl in the International Champions Cup.  The game will be broadcast live on ESPN.

This will be Chelsea’s third year participating in the International Champions Cup and new manager Antonio Conte will seek to use the tournament to begin putting his distinctive spin on the side.

The Blues will begin their preseason in Austria before flying out to California shortly after a friendly meeting with RZ Pellets on July 20th. Their meeting with Premier League rivals Liverpool will take place at the world-famous, 92,000-seat Rose Bowl, host of the 1994 World Cup final.

30 July Real Madrid (Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor) 3:05pm

Tickets: $60-$350

In 2014, Real Madrid broke the soccer attendance record in the United States in their ICC defeat to Manchester United at Michigan Stadium, drawing nearly 110,000 fans.  The Galacticos will return to Michigan this summer to face Chelsea with the goal of nearing that record again.  The game will be broadcast live on ESPN.

04 August AC Milan (US Bank Stadium, Minneapolis) 9:30pm

Tickets: $30-$200

Chelsea will face AC Milan in their final ICC friendly in the United States before heading back to Europe.  The game will be played at the Minnesota Vikings’ US Bank Stadium, which holds over 70,000 fans, and will be broadcast live on ESPN2.

Crystal Palace

13 July Philadelphia Union (PPL Park, Philadelphia) 7pm

Tickets: $30-$100

Crystal Palace kick off the Premier League preseason with their midweek friendly against the Philadelphia Union at Talen Energy Stadium on Wednesday night.  The two teams last met in a friendly in 2014, which Palace won 1-0.

16 July FC Cincinnati (Nippert Stadium, Cincinnati) 7pm

Tickets: $20-$175

Palace will make the short trip to Cincinnati, Ohio to face the USL team FC Cincinnati at 40,000-seat Nippert Stadium.  This will be FC Cincinnati’s highest profile game in the young history of the club, which is currently their inaugural season in the third tier of US soccer. The game will be streamed live on the USL’s Facebook page.

19 July Vancouver Whitecaps FC (BC Place, Vancouver) 10pm

Tickets: $40-175

The BC Place has hosted its fair share of international soccer over the years, most recently the 2015 Women’s Word Cup final, and will host Crystal Palace’s final friendly in North America against the Vancouver Whitecaps of MLS.

Said coach Alan Pardew, per the Whitecap’s official website: “It’s a trip that I think will be good for the club,” added Alan Pardew, manager of Crystal Palace FC. “As we prepare for our upcoming Premier League season, we had a number of teams that want to play us and we’ve taken this opportunity to go to North America to spread the word of the type of football we play. Our fan base continues to grow in North America and this is a perfect opportunity to reach out to those fans as well as introduce ourselves to many more new fans in the United States and Canada.”

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.