ExtremeRavens Posted August 6 Posted August 6 M&T Bank Stadium has been more construction site than sporting venue over the past six months, but after the first round of a three-year renovation, the stadium will again host tens of thousands this week. First, Italy’s AC Milan and Spain’s FC Barcelona will play a soccer exhibition Tuesday and then, on Friday, the Ravens host their first preseason game of the 2024 campaign, a season they hope lands them in the Super Bowl. Milan and Barcelona are both steeped with talent — each club finished second in their respective country’s premier 20-team league last season — and also history: The clubs, both founded in 1899, are celebrating their 125th year of existence. Each is among the world’s top 15 most valuable soccer clubs. The European sides will inaugurate the recently renovated M&T Bank Stadium, which has added a beer hall and luxurious suites thus far as part of a nearly $500 million renovation expected to be fully completed ahead of the 2026 season. Ravens president Sashi Brown called the upgrades “dynamic” Monday and said he hopes they’ll help the team bring in more special events, like Tuesday’s match, to the venue. On Monday morning, the M&T Bank Stadium scoreboards flashed with Milan and Barcelona logos and the hybrid Bermuda grass field was painted with soccer lines. Creating that playing area took some landscaping, though, since soccer pitches are larger than football fields. To prepare for Tuesday’s exhibition, approximately 20,000 square feet of additional grass was added to the playing surface, Ravens spokesperson Tom Valente said. After the game, that added sod will be removed, with some of it reinstalled along sideline areas. Between Tuesday and Friday, the field will be mowed, treated with liquid fertilizer and repainted with football lines. Turf areas will be cleaned and run over with a magnet to pick up any fallen pieces of metal, like earrings. The field will then be tested, “per NFL’s mandatory practices,” Valente said, mowed again and watered multiple times each day ahead of the game. Soccer goals will, of course, be switched out for football goalposts. The entire stadium will be open for the soccer match, according to Matt Basta, a spokesperson for Soccer Champions Tour, which is hosting the event. It will be the first major soccer game at M&T Bank Stadium since July 2022, when English Premier League sides Arsenal and Everton played in front of an announced crowd of 39,245 (most of the stadium was open for that exhibition, save for the end zone upper bowls). Tuesday won’t be the only European soccer friendly in the past week in Maryland. Premier League teams Crystal Palace and Wolves played Wednesday in Annapolis in front of a crowd of 6,750. When European teams travel to the United States ahead of their regular seasons, they often tour the country, and during Barcelona’s three-stop U.S. visit — with friendlies in Orlando, New York and Baltimore — they’ve made Annapolis a home base, training at the U.S. Naval Academy. Ahead of their matchup against AC Milan in Baltimore on Tuesday, FC Barcelona trained at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. (Marc Graupera/FC Barcelona) Attendees and American soccer fans Tuesday might get a glimpse of Diego Kochen, an 18-year-old goalkeeper for Barcelona born in Florida. For fans of the U.S. men’s national team, Tuesday will also afford a chance to see Milan forward Christian Pulisic, dubbed “Captain America” for his performance on the national team, as well as fellow U.S. soccer player Yunus Musah. For many players, including Musah, who grew up in Europe, it will be an introduction to Charm City. When asked what he thinks of when he thinks of Baltimore, Musah said, “Just an American city, that’s it, really.” Ruben Loftus-Cheek, an Englishman and another Milan midfielder, had a similar answer. “To be honest, I don’t know too much about Baltimore,” he said earlier this month, before adding what he’s learned from early reports: “but I’m hearing it’s a beautiful city.” If Loftus-Cheek is able to score against Barcelona, local fans could get a look at what’s become a goal celebration of his: the “too small” gesture, used by many American basketball players. Loftus-Cheek, who is 6-foot-3, often places his arm low to the ground with his hand out, gesturing that the opponent isn’t big enough to handle him. He’s not a big NBA fan, but occasionally he’s seen clips where a player uses the “too small” celebration after a dunk. “I just liked it. It was quite a good celebration. I didn’t actually plan to do it when I scored, it just happened,” he said with a laugh, “and then from then on, I just kept using it.” View the full article Quote
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