With the new season quickly approaching hot on the heels of this summer’s great World Cup in Brazil, teams across the continent are preparing for the grueling schedule ahead with some pre-season friendlies to remove some of the stiffness from the joints, get their brains back into match gear after a summer of relaxing (or plying their trade in South America of course) and trying to hit the ground running once the new league season kicks off in August.
From the English side of things, Man City and Liverpool will partake in what could be described as a real grudge match following last season’s Premier League title run in as the two north west clubs will take part in Guinness International Champions Cup, meeting in New York on July 30. The group also consists of Olympiacos and Serie A’s AC Milan.
Both English sides had the initiative at one point or another towards the business end of the season last time around, but it was Manuel Pellegrini’s Citizens who ultimately lifted the trophy after the final whistle of the campaign. It was Liverpool’s closest title push in years, and that is something that manager Brendan Rodgers will certainly be looking to repeat again this time – and the Guinness International Champions Cup could give both managers some sort of idea of how their rivals’ squad will shape up come the start of the new season.
The Reds also have other mouth watering pre-season fixtures, as German giants Borussia Dortmund arrive on Merseyside in the final game before the new campaign, so Brendan Rodgers is certainly to test his players with some top quality opposition – expect several different faces to feature across the pre-season, but by the time the Dortmund game rolls around on August 10 things should be starting to take shape. Man City have the small matter of the Community Shield to contest against FA Cup winners Arsenal on the same day.
Louis van Gaal’s Man Utd also have a pretty testing fixture list before their bid to regain the Premier League crown even kicks off too – Serie A outfit Roma on July 26 precedes their fellow Italians Inter Milan and then Real Madrid of Serie A at three-day intervals, again in the Guinness International Champions Cup in the USA. This could mean a potential final clash with either of their bitterest rivals, Man City or Liverpool, in the final should any combination of the English representatives qualify.
In Serie A, the aforementioned AC Milan follow up their American escapades against Liverpool and Man City by taking part in the TIM Trophy against Juventus and last year’s winners Sassuolo, who were chosen as the replacements for Inter Milan, who will not feature this time around. This is the 14th TIM trophy tournament, and features three round-robin style matches between the three teams featured all on the same day – this year that day is August 23rd.
Each team play the 90 minutes they would in a normal match, as each game is 45 minutes long. Interestingly, the TIM trophy is seen as unlucky to win, as only twice in its history has the winner of the competition gone on to win the league title that season.
