The biggest football game of the year for AT&T Park is tonight -- no helmets required.
A matchup between Italy's most-controversial and once most-decorated squad -- Juventus FC -- and English Premier League side Everton FC is scheduled for Wednesday night.
Juve, the "New York Yankees" of Italian football, in the words of the newspaper, is fresh off its second straight Italian Serie A title -- following match-fixing and gambling scandals that erased its 2005 and 2006 titles from the record books -- has been practicing all week at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
The fixture with Everton FC -- the Liverpool-based team which has long played second fiddle to better-known and more-successful Liverpool FC -- is part of a promotion called the Guinness International Champions Cup.
The game is a homecoming of sorts for at least one player. Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard was the U.S. Soccer team's starter at the 2010 World Cup. He's from New Jersey, though.
Tickets are still available for tonight's game, which starts at 8 p.m. The winner plays the winner of a game between Spain's Real Madrid -- the other "Yankees" of soccer -- and the L.A. Galaxy in the tournament final in Miami.
