SOCCER INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONS CUP ARTICLES

The La Liga-Serie A Cup was founded just two months ago. This preseason competition sees one team from La Liga and one team from Serie A square off in two neutral site games within one week, and the inaugural cup will see Barcelona and Napoli meet over four days in the United States. The first meeting will take place on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. ET when the two clubs clash in Miami, and the second meeting will kick off at the Big House on Saturday.... 

Manchester United are the only team left that can catch Benfica and win the International Champions Cup. The Red Devils have been in good form, winning all five of their preseason matches, and they have allowed just one goal over that stretch. Meanwhile, AC Milan are at the bottom of the ICC standings and are just looking for a result so as not to earn the dubious wooden spoon.... 

Since 2005, the format of the MLS All-Star Game has seen a team of MLS superstars take on a major European club. We have seen mostly English clubs in this game since this format was introduced, but this year Atletico Madrid will take part for the first time. Atletico Madrid are the second Spanish team to go up against the MLS All-Stars, as Real Madrid was the European representative in 2017. Atletico are out to keep Europe’s win streak alive in this game. ... 

Barcelona will play the last game of their Japanese tour this summer on Saturday when they take on domestic side Vissel Kobe in a match that is going to be watched by every soccer fan in Japan. The Blaugrana have one of the biggest international fanbases of any club in the world, so this match will be broadcast by various providers around the globe and the Worldwide Leader will give early risers something to wake up to before they’ve had their morning coffee in the United States.... 

The Madrid Derby takes place at least twice a year, and it is always one of the most anticipated matches on the Spanish football calendar. Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have nearly a century’s worth of animosity, but the next match between these two clubs will take place outside of New York City at the home of the Jets and the Giants. Real Madrid is 87-38-39 in this series.... 

Before their Premier League campaign kicks off, Chelsea are going to play a few games in Asia and Europe. After taking on local club Kawasaki Frontale in Japan on Friday, they will play European superpower Barcelona on Tuesday. Both sides will be keen off to their new signings before returning to the continent, and this will be our first chance to see them in action.... 

The last match of the International Champions Cup will take place from the Spanish capital on Saturday when Atletico Madrid hosts Inter Milan. The last few weeks have given us the chance to see some of the top clubs in the world compete, and Inter Milan has a chance to win the preseason tournament. A win would give them the same amount of points as Tottenham Hotspur and Borussia Dortmund. To beat both clubs on goal differential, they need to win by four or more goals though. ... 

It hasn’t been a good last couple weeks for Chelsea. The club is still learning how to play under new manager Maurizio Sarri, and there have been some struggles adapting to his system. Sarri is much different than his predecessor Antonio Conte. He wants to play an aggressive, free-flowing style of soccer that is contrary to Conte’s insistence on defensive posture. The Blues will have one more exhibition game to figure things out before the start of the Premier League season, when they take on Ligue 1’s Lyon in their International Champions Cup finale on Tuesday. ... 

The penultimate match of the International Champions Cup will take place just outside of New York City on Tuesday night when Real Madrid faces AS Roma. Both sides are 1-1 at the International Champions Cup thus far, and this will be both teams’ last exhibition match in the United States before returning to Europe. Neither team is in contention to win the International Champions Cup. ... 

The International Champions Cup is coming to a close. Teams are coming back from America and Singapore in order to start their preparations for the start of the season in earnest, and there are just a few games left in the competition. Most clubs have already finished their three-game slates, but Inter Milan and Lyon both have two games left to play. These two teams will meet in one of the last matches of the ICC on Saturday in Italy. ... 

AC Milan figures you have to fight fire with fire, rather than stand pat while rivals Juventus and Inter Milan improve in the offseason. The club made news on Thursday when they announced that they had agreed to a transfer with fellow Serie A club Juventus for the services of Gonzalo Higuain. Higuain is one of the most talented forwards in the world and will help AC Milan’s attack be even more deadly in 2018. He won’t be on display against Barcelona on Saturday, but his addition is one to keep an eye on. ... 

The first Cristiano Ronaldo Derby between Ronaldo’s former club, Real Madrid, and his new club, Juventus, will take place on Saturday in America’s capital. Unfortunately, it looks like the man of the hour is set to miss out on the festivities. Ronaldo has only recently returned to training after an extended break this week, and it’s very unlikely that he will make the trip across the pond for an International Champions Cup match against his old mates. This should still be a very intriguing affair though. ... 

Every other team taking part in the International Champions Cup will have played at least once, with some having completed their three matches, before Olympique Lyon first takes the pitch on Wednesday. Lyon was a last-minute replacement for La Liga side Sevilla, who had to bow out of the tournament in mid-June because of scheduling conflicts due to Europa League play and the Spanish Super Cup. That meant the schedule had to be jumbled around in order to accommodate both Lyon and the three teams that Lyon will play in place of Sevilla, and the first of those will be Portuguese club Benfica. ... 

Over the past two decades, the rivalry between Arsenal and Chelsea has heated up significantly. Both clubs are located in London, but only recently has the rivalry become important. For most of their history, Chelsea was a mid-table team while Arsenal was seen as one of the elite clubs in England. Arsenal mostly came out on top when the teams met on the pitch until Roman Abramovich purchased Chelsea. Suddenly, the status quo changed as Abramovich poured money into and resources into the team. Chelsea was no longer the little brother of Arsenal, but a peer and that has rankled the feathers of many old Gunners supporters. That will add some intrigue to the clubs’ International Champions Cup battle across the Irish Sea on Wednesday. ... 

There is a surprising amount of bad blood between Barcelona and AS Roma, giving fans some extra drama heading into their match on Tuesday night. The two clubs met in the Champions League Quarterfinals last year, with Roma pulling off one of the biggest upsets ever. Roma lost the first leg of their tie 4-1 in Camp Nou, and no one gave them a chance to win by three or more goals at home. However, they were able to do just that in order to shock the world and send Barcelona crashing out of the Champions League. ... 

For the first time in seven years, AC Milan and Tottenham Hotspur will be meeting on the soccer field on Tuesday night. Neither club has been able to win a league title for some time, but both clubs have been able to remain in the hunt and are hoping that this year is the year for a breakthrough. The International Champions Cup gives teams a valuable experience in getting teams to come together before the start of the season and by giving reserves the opportunity to shine. Reserves from both teams will look to seize that opportunity here. ... 

Manchester United will square off against one of the other giant clubs in the world when they take on Real Madrid in the International Champions Cup on Tuesday. For Manchester United, it will be the end of their run at the International Champions Cup. It will be the club’s third match, and their last match before heading back to Europe to prepare for the start of the season. As for Real Madrid, it will be the club’s first match at the ICC. ... 

Thomas Tuchel took over for Unai Emery as manager of Paris Saint Germain this offseason, and the task laid before him is to win the Champions League. PSG has won everything there is to win in France at this point, but European success has eluded the club. They have failed to make it past the Quarterfinals of the Champions League in their last few seasons, despite spending an exorbitant amount of money on superstars. With this goal in mind, Tuchel has largely sat his stars for PSG’s preseason slate in order to have them ready for the regular season. Many are unlikely to play when PSG squares off against Atletico Madrid in Singapore on Monday. ... 

Bayern Munich and Manchester City are both entering their last matches of the International Champions Cup. Manchester City are looking to pick up a result. They have failed to do so in their two previous matches, and City would like to have some kind of momentum heading into their FA Community Shield match against Chelsea next week. Meanwhile, Bayern Munich did win their first match, but they failed to win their second due to some defensive errors. The Bundesliga champions are going to want to shore those up in their last match. ... 

This meeting between Premier League rivals Liverpool and Manchester United will take place in an interesting venue, the University of Michigan’s football stadium. Tens of thousands are expected to show up to watch two of the biggest clubs in the world square off just a couple weeks before the start of the Premier League campaign. Both Liverpool and Manchester United are seen as favorites to win the league this year, so this match may be a foreshadowing of things to come. ... 

Unai Emery is still in the process of feeling his new team out. Arsenal’s decision to have him replace the legendary Arsene Wenger was widely seen as a shrewd decision, and he has wasted little time in molding the team how he sees fit. On Saturday, he will be leading his new club against his former one, Paris Saint Germain, in Singapore. ... 

Benfica and Juventus are set to square off in a big day of International Champions Cup action this Saturday. Juventus made a big splash this offseason with the acquisition of Cristiano Ronaldo, and the Italian club is hoping that he can be the piece that finally unlocks the Champions League puzzle. They have dominated Serie A this decade, but a Champions League title has eluded the club as they finished runners-up twice in the past few seasons. ... 

Tottenham Hotspur were able to get their International Champions Cup tour started right on Wednesday with a 4-1 win over AS Roma in San Diego. Spurs quickly fell behind 1-0, but they got four goals in the span of 35 minutes to salt the game away by the end of the first half. Fernando Llorente notched a brace in the 18th minute for Tottenham, and Lucas Moura picked up a brace of his own before the halftime whistle. They will aim to keep up their winning ways against Barcelona this weekend. ... 

Originally, this match was supposed to pit Chelsea against Sevilla, but the Spanish club pulled out of the International Champions Cup late in the game. That led to a shake-up in the schedule, and so Inter Milan is playing Chelsea a couple days earlier than they were originally slated to. It might turn out to be a good thing that these clubs are meeting a bit sooner than expected. Both sides are rumored to be interested in adding a member of the other’s team, and they are slated to hold discussions about potential moves before the match. This will add a bit of spice to the preseason showdown between these two clubs. ... 

It will be a rematch of the Europa League Semifinals when Atletico Madrid and Arsenal meet on Thursday in Singapore. Atletico Madrid was able to get the edge on Arsenal the last time around, stifling the Gunners with their defense in order to make it to the Europa League Final where they knocked off Marseille to make Spain double champions once more. That kept Arsenal out of Champions League action this season, relegating them to another Europa League campaign. A win for Arsenal wouldn’t do much to assuage those hard feelings, but it would make new manager Unai Emery happy. ...