Two proud footballing clubs will meet on Thursday night from Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey as Mexican powerhouse Chivas de Guadalajara squares off with German giants FC Bayern Munich. The Germans are in the United States as part of a two-stop American tour in their pre-season which also includes a visit to Portland, Oregon next Wednesday to play the MLS All-Stars.

Chivas has already begun their 2014 Apertura campaign with four points from their first two matches. In total, this will be the fourth friendly played in the United States by Chivas in preparation for the season. They started out their pre-season campaign with a 2-0 loss to Brazilian side Cruzeiro on July 6th at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.

They faced off with fellow Liga MX side Cruz Azul just four days later at the StubHub Center in Carson, CA which ended 2-1 in favor of Chivas. A goal from Aldo de Nigris in the first half followed by a second half strike from Omar Bravo would be enough to secure the win.

Swansea City of the English Premier League would provide the third opponent for Chivas as they squared off from Miller Park in Milwaukee, WI. Swansea City scored first in the 57th minute off of a Nathan Dyer goal from a beautiful cross from Marvin Emnes. Both teams would have a player sent off in the 80th minute after a shoving match ensued. It would be Giovani Hernandez who squared the match in the final minute after converting a penalty kick.

After this match, Chivas has one more friendly scheduled. It will take place at NRG Stadium in Houston against Italian powerhouse AC Milan. Originally they were scheduled to play in a derby match with cross town rivals Club Universidad de Guadalajara on Sunday but that match was moved to Sunday, September 7th to help relive Chivas of fixture congestion.

Bayern Munich has played in two pre-season fixtures already winning the 2014 Telekom Cup in Hamburg with wins over Borussia Monchengladbach in the semi-finals and VfL Wolfsburg in the Final. The two-time defending Bundesliga champions have a little different look to them in 2014-15. Gone are 36-year-old Belgian defender Daniel van Buyten, 24-year-old midfielder Toni Kroos and 28-year-old forward Mario Mandzukic.

In to replace them are younger very talented players that manager Pep Guardiola hopes can keep up the Bayern Munich winning way. 25-year-old Polish forward Robert Lewandowski joins on a five-year deal from Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund, 23-year old German midfielder Sebastian Rode signed a four-year deal from Eintracht Frankfurt and 21-year old Spanish defender Juan Bernat joined on a five-year deal from Valencia.

The club also extended the contracts of key contributors Philipp Lahm and Thomas Muller through 2018 and 2019, respectively.

After their short U.S. Tour, Bayern will face off with Borussia Dortmund on August 13th at the Westfalenstadion for the DFL Supercup. Four days later, they kick off their DFB-Pokal defense with a first round match away to third-division side SC Preußen Münster at the Preußenstadion. Finally, on August 22nd their Bundesliga campaign begins at the Allianz Arena against VfL Wolfsburg.

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Matthew Evans
Matthew is an American sports journalist based out of Kennewick, Washington. He is a Managing Editor for VAVEL USA as well as Co-editor of the soccer section.