FC Barcelona Cancel Juventus Friendly But Not For Reasons Club Stated

FC Barcelona have announced that their friendly against Juventus on Saturday evening has been suspended.

“FC Barcelona hereby informs that the game against Juventus FC, scheduled for today, July 22 at 7:30 PM at Levi’s Stadium, as part of the Soccer Champions Tour, has been canceled,” the club tweeted, at around 7:00 PM back home in Catalonia.

“A significant part of the Blaugrana squad has viral gastroenteritis,” they added.

According to Victor Malo, though, who is the director of El Espanol‘s Culemania page, eight Barca players have been affected by an illness which “is not gastric”.

Malo reported how Barca suspect the virus “could have something to do with one of the players who has been in Africa on vacation”, yet did not have all the necessary vaccinations required to go to his country.

These reports are unconfirmed by the club, but some Twitter onlookers have already deduced that the first team star in question might be Alejandro Balde because he visited his father’s homeland Guinea-Bissau in late June with brother Edi.

News of the suspension will come as a blow to fans in California and elsewhere that had tickets to see the La Liga champions up close in the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

Furthermore, Culers worldwide that planned to watch the game on television and see Barca’s new signings in action for the first time will be disappointed as well.

The last time the two sides met on July 27, 2002, 58,127 spectators in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas were treated to a thrilling 2-2 draw determined by braces from Ousmane Dembele and Moise Kean on either side of the ball.

Up to now, it is unclear whether the fixture planned for tonight will be rescheduled and go ahead in the next couple of days.

That might seem unlikely at face value, with Barca on a tight schedule that sees them planning to play a total of four – now possibly just three – friendlies over an 11-day period.

Relatively speaking, though, Barca won’t travel that far for their next game compared to the vast distances between the American cities often picked for these tours.

On Wednesday, Barca will take on Premier
PINC
League giants Arsenal at the Los Angeles Chargers’ SoFi Stadium some 350 miles south in Inglewood meaning the Juventus game might still be able to go ahead on Monday, for example, if the players suffering from illness have recovered.

Fitting both games in would be near impossible if we were talking about covering the ground between LA and where Barca’s third friendly in the US will be played.

Next Saturday, Xavi Hernandez’s men meet bitter rivals Real Madrid in another Stateside edition of El Clasico at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas over 1,400 miles to the east.

After this, Barca head west again for a showdown with AC Milan in Las Vegas that finishes the tour on August 1, and then have roughly a week to prepare for their annual Joan Gamper Trophy match.

On this occasion, they will host Arsenal’s north London nemesis Tottenham Hotspur at the Montjuic Stadium while their usual Camp Nou home is being renovated.

By August 13, preseason will be over as Barca’s defense of the Spanish title begins with an away trip to Getafe.