Tonight it's Juventus, the two-time defending Serie A champions, squaring off against the Los Angeles Galaxy, the two-time defending Major League Soccer champions. Champion vs. champion! Okay, so it doesn't exactly have the same kind of sizzle as, say, Juventus playing Real Madrid with the chance to play in the International Champions Cup title game, but it's what we're going to have to live with.
But the reality is that it's the Galaxy and Juve facing one another at Dodger Stadium. I could say what I was about the stadium where the baseball version of Inter play 81 games a year, but that's a different subject for a different time. Tonight it's another game in preparation for the Supercoppa and Serie A opener against Sampdoria in a little over three week's time.
It's not the sexy matchup that would have been Real Madrid and a reunion with their new manager, some dude named Carlo Ancelotti. You might have heard of him before. He had a pretty decent run as a coach during his time in Italy, didn't he? (Don't answer that. We both know the answer to it.)
Regardless of what team Juve may or may not be playing tonight, there's work to be done. Players are at different stages of fitness and the season is quickly approaching. With only a few more friendlies left before the games count for real, Antonio Conte's squad has that many more chances to make sure when things begin to look like they should be and up to Il MIster's high standards.
And hey, who knows. Maybe we'll get a chance at Inter before the night of Sept. 15 at the San Siro rolls around.
There will be a post some time tomorrow regarding the Juve-Galaxy matchup. Enjoy the game — or at least try to do so — while I spend most of my night laying out Sunday's sports pages and watching this one on my DVR in the middle of the night. And I thought Juventus being on the West Coast would be helpful...