Real Madrid earned a 3-2 victory over AC Milan on Sunday July 23rd, 2023 at the historic Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California. Christian Pulisic, United States Men’s National Team captain, helped AC Milan take an early lead with a corner kick assist to his teammate Fikayo Tomori. AC Milan doubled their lead with a beautiful shot from outside the box by the Argentine Luka Romero. The game had quick turnaround in the second half following numerous substitutions by Real Madrid Coach Carlo Ancelotti. Federico Valverde tied the game with goals in the 57th and 59th minutes of the game. Later, Vinicius Junior would give Real Madrid the lead and eventual win with his fast break shot in the 83rd minute.
The game is one of eight matches of the Soccer Champions Tour 2023 presented by Direct TV. The tour provides fans in southern California a rare opportunity to watch several of the highest ranked teams in the world compete. It includes the following six European teams: AC Milan, Arsenal, FC Barcelona, Juventus, Manchester United, and Real Madrid. I have been critical of previous exhibition games in the US between European teams because players appeared tired, in bad physical form, and/or unenthusiastic. This tour has been different because games have been competitive and elite players have participated playing at a high level, like Vinicius Junior and Luka Modric of Real Madrid.
Marco Sportiello of AC Milan
Many soccer fans in southern California don’t have the money to travel to Europe to watch their favorite teams play. Fortunately, this tour brought those teams to their fans. The fans response this Sunday was filling the stadium. The reported attendance for Real Madrid vs AC Milan was 70,814. Among those were Chicano Charley Vasquez of Long Beach, California and the Jalisco-born Alexis Gonzalez of Hawthorne, California. Charley shared he has been a Real Madrid fan for over 23 years. He came to the game with Alexis and 8 other coworkers. Both shared that this was their first time seeing their favorite team Real Madrid play live. I met them as they walked up the hillside on California Avenue towards the stadium drinking Modelos. They bought Real Madrid headbands for $5 from a street vendor and later described their experience at the Rose Bowl Stadium as “awesome.”
Referee Timothy Ford, Christian Pulisic, and Danny Carvajal
Toni Kroos with ball and Tommaso Pogeba
Ruben Ira Loftus Cheek with ball and Francisco Jose Garcia
Marco Sportiello celebrating AC Milan goal with team in background
fans in Rose Bowl Stadium