LAFC to host Borussia Dortmund in friendly on May 22

It’s official: Los Angeles Football Club will host Borussia Dortmund for a friendly on May 22. LAFC announced the date on Tuesday, nearly three months after the teams initially announced they would be playing a friendly at Banc of California Stadium this year.

The timing presumably comes with the current Dortmund squad still available, as the Bundesliga season ends May 12, so consider this a postseason trip for Peter Stöger and the squad. Presumably, that also means American star Christian Pulisic will turn up for the game for the German side.

“We are looking forward to coming from Dortmund to L.A. with our team,” said Carsten Cramer, BVB Chief Marketing Officer in a statement. “We are excited to experience the atmosphere in LAFC’s new arena with its standing terrace and spectacular architecture with a view of the World’s City.”

May 22 is a Tuesday, and the friendly will take place at 7 pm PT. It will be the first in-season friendly for LAFC, and the timing of it represents a bit of a crunch. They will have a road game against the Portland Timbers on May 19, the previous Saturday, and their game against D.C. United at home, which had been moved to May 29, or the day after Memorial Day, is now showing up on LAFC’s website as being on May 26, or that Saturday.

Remember, LAFC currently have only 23 players available! Don’t get me wrong, friendlies are cool, especially ones against cool teams like Dortmund, but let’s ban tackling for this game, ok?

The release does not say if this game will be televised. It’s possible it won’t be aired at all, as a way to get people to buy tickets and actually attend, but we may hear of a broadcast down the line. I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up being streamed on LAFC’s YouTube TV channel, but again, we’ll see when the time gets closer.