Famed Rose Bowl to host FC Barcelona v LA Galaxy

Famed Rose Bowl to host FC Barcelona v LA Galaxy

The southern California stadium, which has a rich history including big international football matches, is the first stop on Barça's US tour

The Rose Bowl, one of the most famous outdoor stadiums in American sporting history, and one which has hosted a plethora of major sporting events since it was built in 1922, will open its doors once again to international football when FC Barcelona arrive in Pasadena, California to take on the Los Angeles Galaxy in Match Six of the 2015 International Champions Cup on Tuesday, 21 July at 8.00pm PT (5.00am CET on Wednesday, 22 July).

With a natural grass playing surface and an official seating capacity of 92,542, the Rose Bowl is perhaps most renowned for American football. It is currently the home field of the UCLA Bruins of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and has been the site of the Rose Bowl game — arguably the most famous of several annual "bowls" that form part of the NCAA's ever-evolving championship system — since 1943.

Aside from having held many other events, including the track cycling events of the 1932 Olympic Games and a bevy of music concerts featuring a who's who of performers — from Depeche Mode, Metallica and Michael Jackson to Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and U2 — the Rose Bowl also has a rich history hosting matches from that global sport that Americans like to call 'soccer.'

Football, or soccer, history

In fact, FC Barcelona's first preseason opponents this summer, the Galaxy themselves, called the Rose Bowl home from the team's founding in 1996 until they moved to their current grounds in 2003.

In addition to Major League Soccer (MLS) matches, the southern California stadium has seen its share of the international spotlight as well. The Rose Bowl hosted eight matches as one of the main sites of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, including four in the first round, one in the last 16, one of the two semi-finals, and the thrilling Final between Italy and Brazil, which came out on top, 3–2 on penalty kicks, after 120 minutes of scoreless play.

For Barça, the Rose Bowl is not overly familiar, and that's because the Catalans have only played there once.  On 1 August 2009, Pep Guardiola's squad, fresh off the first Treble-winning campaign in Club history, took on David Beckham and the Galaxy and emerged with a 2–1 triumph on goals from Bojan Krkić and Jeffren Suárez.

On 21 July 2015, Luis Enrique and his own Treble-winner will be back in Pasadena to try and equal, or improve, on that result.

[[BOTOGRIS::Special section++Barça's US tour::http://www.fcbarcelona.com/football/first-team/detail/article/dates-for-the-north-american-international-champions-cup-revealed::HOR::NF::NO-TRACKING::::::]]

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