FC Barcelona is confident of maintaining its pre-season plans in the United States after having to cancel its friendly against Juventus this Saturday due to viral gastroenteritis that has affected several players from the Barça team.
Barça shared a message on their social networks yesterday afternoon to make it clear that they hope to play their second friendly of this preseason, which is scheduled for this Wednesday the 26th at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles (USA) against Arsenal.
"FC Barcelona wants to encourage its fans to attend and enjoy the match that we are going to play this coming Wednesday against Arsenal at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Both teams are in close contact and we share the utmost confidence that our match will take place as planned", the culé club said on its official Twitter account.
Joan Laporta, president of Barcelona, regretted this Saturday the cancellation of the friendly against Juventus and said that it had been "a very hard blow".
"We really wanted to see the League champion team with the new additions this season. And yes, it is a very hard blow, especially for the affected players, who I hope and wish them a quick recovery," said Laporta, from Los Angeles (USA), in a video released by the club on its official Twitter account.
"And it's hard because all of us Barça fans really wanted to be in San Francisco today playing a game against Juve. It won't be possible for this reason, due to force majeure. And unfortunately the game has been suspended because the Summer Tour is very scheduled and we don't have any more dates for this game to take place. We're going to see how to make up for it somehow. It's what it is and we have to accept it," he added.
For now, the names and number of affected players have not been officially released.
On Thursday, on the first day of testing in Los Angeles as part of his pre-season tour of the US, Jules Koundé worked at a different pace than the rest of the group due to stomach problems.
Concentrated in Los Angeles since Wednesday, Barcelona had planned to fly yesterday morning to Santa Clara, in San Francisco Bay, at 10:30 a.m. (North American time) and would also return to the mecca of Hollywood by plane as soon as the match against Juventus finished at 10:30 p.m.
But those plans were canceled after, according to Laporta, they woke up yesterday morning "with the misfortune that a large part of the players on the squad presented symptoms of a large intestinal viral gastroenteritis that causes vomiting and decomposition."
"Life and football sometimes surprise us with these situations, which slow us down or change our plans," said the president of the Spanish club.
The match against Juventus was the first of the Soccer Champions Tour in 2023, an initiative that brings the best European soccer teams to the US, and was to be played at Levi's Stadium, the venue where the NFL's San Francisco 49ers play their games.
"We wish the Barcelona players a speedy recovery," Juventus said on Twitter.
After the duel against Arsenal, the blaugrana's calendar includes a classic in Dallas against Real Madrid on Saturday, July 29, and a final friendly in Las Vegas on Tuesday, August 1, against Milan.
