14.11.2022Bayer 04

#Bayer04USATour – Day one: Black and Red reception in St. Louis

The final competitive match of the year against VfB Stuttgart (2-0) was just a few hours old when the next highlight came for the Werkself: Bayer 04 flew out to St Louis on Sunday morning 13 November to play a friendly against the newly formed team in the Major League Soccer (MLS) St. Louis CITY Soccer Club. Day one of the #Bayer04USATour 2022 involved arriving in St. Louis with several of the Werkself players joining a short tour of the newly built CITYPARK Stadium in the evening.

On Saturday evening, the 17 travelling Bayer 04 players, in a good mood after three Bundesliga wins in succession, boarded the team bus for the journey to Frankfurt Airport. Jonathan Tah and Co. stayed overnight in an airport hotel before flying out to St Louis on Sunday morning. The Werkself met up with the Hamburg SV team in departures. The second division club also flew out to the USA on Sunday to spend several days in Los Angeles. There was time for a short chat between HSV player Tim Leibold (left in photo) and Robert Andrich before the plane for St Louis left German soil on time at 10.45 CET.

The Werkself players were able to catch up on an hour or two of sleep during the nine-hour direct flight and everybody was back on their feet on arrival in St Louis in the USA state of Missouri – where they received an ecstatic reception from Black and Red fans.

Carro on St. Louis: "absolute Footall city"

The players, coaching staff including manager Xabi Alonso plus the board took plenty of time out at the exit from the airport to sign autographs and pose for selfies with the fans. Fernando Carro, Bayer 04 CEO, spoke to American TV reporters: "St. Louis is an absolute football city. We are happy to finally be back here and play the opening match at the new St Louis CITYPARK Stadium on Wednesday."

stadium tour at st. louis city sc

Following a late lunch at the team hotel, several of the Werkself players headed off on the team bus to take a look at the newly built stadium.

The tour of the stadium of the future MLS club started with the training ground, which is also brand-new, located right next to the stadium with its state-of-the-art technology. The group including Kerem Demirbay, Nadiem Amiri, Florian Wirtz and Co. walked past the training pitch to have the first look at the CITYPARK Stadium.

After visiting the spacious home dressing room it was off to the pitch to take a closer look at the interior of the stadium. Amiri and Co. are set to play a friendly against St. Louis CITY SC on Wednesday to officially open the brand new venue (kick-off: 16 November, 19.00 local time/02.00 CET 17 November)..

outlook: Bayer AG visit

Day two of the #Bayer04USATour starts for the players with a training session followed by media interviews at the training ground. The Black and Reds will then set off in the afternoon to the Bayer AG research centre in Chesterfield, 30 minutes away from the team hotel. That will be followed by a visit to the Soccer Clinics at Lou Fusz and the last part of the day in the evening with dinner at the city’s zoo.

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