A formal statement “is expected this week” announcing that MLS DC United and Serie A club Juventus “have finalized plans to play a July 28 friendly at RFK Stadium,” according to Steven Goff of the WASHINGTON POST. Kickoff for the match “is scheduled for 6 p.m. to accommodate national TV coverage, which hasn’t been announced yet.” The sides "reached a tentative deal weeks ago" after plans to participate in a doubleheader at FedExField "failed to take hold.” EPL club Chelsea and Serie A club AC Milan “would’ve played in the other match in Landover,” but those two clubs now “will face one another in Miami.” The Juventus-United match falls “on the same day as a friendly in Baltimore between English rivals Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.” Juventus is “also planning to play Real Madrid in Las Vegas and Paris Saint-Germain in Montreal” (WASHINGTONPPOST.com, 5/16). In Chicago, Seth Gruen notes soccer will return to Wrigley Field "for the first time since 1984 when Italy’s AS Roma and Poland’s Zaglebie Lubin play a friendly” on July 22. The Roma-Lubin game “will follow the Ron Santo Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cooperstown, N.Y., and other tributes to Santo.” The playing field will “run from the third-base line to right field, similar to the layout for the Illinois-Northwestern football game in 2010.” The friendly is “the first stop on a U.S tour for AS Roma," which also is scheduled to play in N.Y. and Boston. The game comes one day after the MLS Fire "takes on Aston Villa in another international friendly at Toyota Park.” AS Roma Exec Committee member Jim Pallotta said, “The Roma brand in the U.S. has been one of our top priorities, and playing an international friendly at Wrigley Field against a top Polish club is a big step in the right direction” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 5/17).
