After Tuesday evening's successful debut on the international scene, Citi Field is ready to embrace soccer.
According to the Associated Press, Italian powerhouse Juventus will play an exhibition friendly against Mexican side Club America on Tuesday, July 26. A story on the official Juventus website corroborated the AP account while announcing a US tour earlier today that includes a stop in Philadelphia before the Citi Field match.
From the Juventus website:
Juventus will travel to the United States as part of their preseason preparations. The Bianconeri will be on tour between 19th July and 1st August. Their base will be in Philadelphia. From Pennsylvania the team will travel to play three friendly games, one of which will be played at the Field Stadium in Flushing, New York on 26th July.
Their opponents for this encounter have been confirmed as the Mexican side Club America, one of the most prestigious and renowned teams of the continent.
The upcoming Bianconeri visit follows on the heels of the first professional soccer match in the history of Citi Field and the first pro match in Queens since 2003. 39,656 supporters cheered on the Greece and Ecuador National teams in a 1-1 draw, making Tuesday's match the second-highest attended event at Citi Field this year -- just behind the 41,075 fans that attended the Mets' home opener.
A formal announcement by the Mets is expected in the next few days, but Dave Howard, Mets Executive VP of Business Operations, confirmed to MLB.com earlier this week that the team is "in discussions now about a professional exhibition between a high-profile club European team and a Mexican team for late July."