Diary from the States, Day 6 | The sun, the pitch, the wait

The sun is strong, relentless. It shines and heats, almost burns. From the training ground to the stadium, a stretch of asphalt connects the key points of our debut. You arrive at the Rose Bowl Stadium: empty, it’s even more majestic. Football and soccer — history has been written here.

The pitch is perfect, a soft carpet ready to host our first match. The silence is grand, it draws you in, projects you into the near future and pulls you back to the past, to all that this stadium has witnessed.

Los Angeles moves with energy, with people. Pasadena, by contrast, feels still. Suspended in anticipation — of football, of our colors. The pre-match rituals are the same as always, just thousands of kilometers further from home. Interviews, questions, press conferences. All of it builds up to what everyone is waiting for, inside a setting that seems beyond measure.

And while the stadium gets ready, Los Angeles is once again streaked with black and blue. There, where the sun paints perfect pictures, where skaters and surfers pull off tricks in a cinematic backdrop, the thoughts of the Nerazzurri people — both here and back home — are fixed on just one thing: the match.