For the first time in nearly 30 years, soccer will be played at Wrigley Field.
The home of the Chicago Cubs will play host to Italy's AS Roma and Polish side Zaglebie Lubin on July 22 at 2:30 p.m., in a game being billed as the "Friendly at the Confines." The Cubs will be on the road that weekend, facing the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
Roma had announced a stop in Chicago as one of three games on its U.S. tour when the club put out a press release in March, but the location of the game and the opponent had not been announced. With Wednesday's announcement, the site will be Wrigley, which has not hosted soccer since 1984.
The Chicago Sting of the North American Soccer League had played at Wrigley, as well as Comiskey Park, at various points during their existence. The field of play for the Sting's games ran from the visitors' dugout to the right field wall, as it will for the July game between Roma and Zaglebie Lubin. A similar configuration was used in 2010, when the 98-year-old ballpark played host to a college football game between Notre Dame and Northwestern.
Roma finished seventh out of 20 teams in Serie A this season with 56 points (16 wins, 8 draws, 14 losses). Zaglebie Lubin finished ninth out of 16 teams in the Ekstraklasa, Poland's top league, with 40 points (11 wins, 7 draws, 12 losses).
From Chicago, Roma will head to Boston, where the team is scheduled to face Liverpool FC of the English Premier League in a July 25 matchup at Fenway Park (the Fenway Sports Group owns Liverpool). That game is the middle game of a three-date North American tour for Liverpool, which will face MLS club Toronto FC on July 21 at Rogers Centre and EPL opponent Tottenham Hotspur on July 28 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore (Spurs also have dates scheduled with the Los Angeles Galaxy and the New York Red Bulls in July).
oma will close out its tour against a to-be-determined opponent at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets. Tickets for the "Friendly at the Confines" will go on sale on May 24.
