Galaxy-Barca is hot ticket

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Jul 31, 2009

[BARCELONA TOUR] In a summer marked by huge crowds across the country for international matches, the biggest crowd of the summer should turn out Saturday at the Rose Bowl, where the Los Angeles Galaxy hosts European champion Barcelona on the first game of the Spanish club's three-game West Coast tour.

The Galaxy-Barca game has already sold 75,000 and should surpass the two biggest crowds of the summer -- 82,252 for Mexico-Haiti at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium and 81,224 for Chelsea-Inter Milan last week at the Rose Bowl.

Argentine star Lionel Messi heads the list of players in the team that arrived Wednesday in Los Angeles. He led Barca to a rare triple in 2009.

In addition to the stars from last season's triple championship team, recently acquired Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Mexican teenager Jonathan Dos Santos -- brother of Tri Gold Cup hero Giovanni -- are in the traveling squad.

Ibrahimovic will be in Pasadena for his second game in two weeks. He was with Inter Milan for its game against Chelsea in the World Football Challenge.
 
The Catalan club's star-studded team, playing in the United States for the third time in the last four years, continues to Seattle to play Seattle Sounders FC on Wednesday -- the game at Qwest Field is already a sellout -- and concludes its tour on Aug. 8 at San Francisco's Candlestick Park against Mexico's Guadalajara.
 
FC Barcelona 2009 U.S. Tour Roster
GOALKEEPERS - Albert Jorquera, Jose Manuel Pinto, Victor Valdes
DEFENDERS - Eric Abidal (FRA), Maxwell Andrade (BRA), Henrique Adriano (BRA), Daniel Alves (BRA), Rafael Marquez (MEX), Gerard Pique, Carles Puyol, Victor Sanchez, Marc Muniesa, Andreu Fontás
MIDFIELDERS - Sergio Busquets, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Pedro Rodriguez, Victor Sanchez, Seydou Keita (MLI), Toure Yaya (CIV), Jonathan Dos Santos (MEX).
FORWARDS - Eidur Gudjohnsen (ICE), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (SWE), Thierry Henry (FRA), Bojan Krkic, Lionel Messi (ARG), Jeffren Suarez.