Barça completes first workout in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — It was just a few minutes past 10:30am PT on Thursday when the FC Barcelona players took to the field. Local time, that is. Considering the nine-hour time difference with Barcelona, the players' bodies were telling them it was more like 7pm. 

But casting aside the inevitable bout with jet lag, the team made the short drive from the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where they will train throughout their stay in LA.

All 32 players on tour participated in Thursday's workout, including the newest signee, Oriol Romeu.

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a historic venue

Barça's first training session on American soil took place on a grand stage, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, with a capacity to accommodate a staggering 78,467 spectators. This historic building, raised in 1923 and remodeled in 2018, hosted the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. Moreover, it hosted two early Super Bowls, etching its name in the annals of sporting history.

Over the years it has served, at one time or another, as the home ground for the NFL's Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Chargers, and Los Angeles Raiders, and even Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers following their move west from Brooklyn in 1958.

Today, it stands proud as the revered home of the NCAA's USC Trojans.