People & Places, Views

Are you ready for some … calcio?

by Keith Graham | 0, Add your Comment | Mar 24, 2009

Associazone Calcio MilanAre you ready for some calcio?

Sorry about lapsing into Italian. It just came out naturally when I noticed press releases posted on several Web sites today that the Italian soccer powerhouse AC Milan will play a match in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome on July 22.

I should also apologize to Mexican fans who would probably prefer me to lapse into Spanish and say, “Are you ready for some futbol?” Mexican fans are likely to turn out in force for the Georgia Dome match because A.C. Milan will be playing Club America, a Mexico City squad that is one of the most successful in the history of Mexico’s Primera Division.

Associazone Calcio Milan — or just AC Milan to its friends — is not only very successful in Italy’s Serie A league but also has won more international titles than any other club, with the exception of Argentina’s Boca Juniors. Both have 18 officially recognized international titles. The Rossoneri — or Red and Black — has won seven UEFA Champions League titles, trailing only Spain’s Real Madrid, which has won nine.

Large numbers of Americans might know that David Beckham is playing there now (on a loan from the Los Angeles Galaxy that continues until the Italian season ends in May). But soccer fans know many of the other stars on the current AC Milan team including Filippo Inzaghi, Ronaldinho, Andriy Shevchenko, Kaka, Allessandro Nesta, Emerson, Philippe Senderos, Dida and Paolo Maldini. (The club is owned by Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.)

The Atlanta match, which has a 7 p.m. start time, will be part of a six-city round robin tournament, also featuring two other teams, England’s Chelsea, and AC Milan’s hometown rival Inter Milan.

Click here to buy tickets. ESPN2 will televise the game from the Georgia Dome.
Other matches in the series feature:
Club America vs. Inter Milan, July 19, Palo Alto, Calif.
Chelsea vs. Inter Milan, July 21, Pasadena, Calif.
AC Milan vs. Chelsea, July 24, Baltimore, Md.
AC Milan vs. Inter Milan, July 26, Foxborough, Mass.
Chelsea vs. Club America, July 26, Arlington, Texas

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Keith Graham
About the author Keith Graham: Keith Graham lives in Atlanta most of the time and on St. Simons Island on Georgia’s coast the rest. Like so many Southerners, Keith was named for a blind piano player, who is now little remembered, and he spent his earliest years living with his parents in the back rooms of a small-town Georgia radio station. Later, he moved to several other states, including North Carolina twice, before returning to Georgia. He has worked for a series of newspapers, including The Atlanta Journal and Constitution from 1979 to 2007.