Celtic ramp up their pre-season preparations this weekend and play their first match in the United States for over a decade.
Brendan Rodgers’ Bhoys take on Major League Soccer side DC United at Audi Field in the nation’s capital, Washington DC.
After warm-up friendlies in Scotland against Queen’s Park and Ayr United, Saturday night’s match (local time) presents a significant step up in challenge and should test Celtic’s returning stars.
Team stalwarts such as Callum McGregor, Greg Taylor, Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda could all feature after getting back to training over the last ten days.
The clash is also a great chance for Celtic supporters in North America to see the team in the flesh and ticket sales reflect decent interest in the fixture.
Thousands set to turn out for Celtic vs DC United
The Ticketmaster website shows just under 1,700 briefs are left, meaning over 18,000 are expected to attend the match at the 20,000-capacity stadium.
That’s around DC United’s average attendance for competitive fixtures so, for a friendly, it’s not bad going at all.
The match is unlikely to be a sell-out at this point but there should be a fun atmosphere and, hopefully, two attacking sides putting on a show.
Brendan Rodgers looking forward to DC United experience
Speaking to the club’s official website, Rodgers said: “I’m really looking forward to going to the stadium. It looks like a really nice venue.
“We’re stepping up each pre-season game. It’s another step forward in our match fitness. Our main aim is getting to the Kilmarnock game in a really good place physically.”
To that end, the Celtic manager is likely to use over 20 players again throughout this fixture with a raft of youngsters and fringe talents travelling with the squad across the Atlantic.
Nobody will be reading too much into whatever the result is, but a strong performance from the Bhoys would be nice to see.
