May 23 (2013)

International men’s soccer returns in a big way to St. Louis after a 16-year absence. Premier League giants Manchester City and Chelsea meet in a friendly at Busch Stadium before a sellout crowd of 48,263, the biggest ever for a sporting event to date at the seven-year-old stadium. The game sells out 20 minutes after tickets go on sale to the public (although thousands of tickets were bought earlier in a “private” pre-sale). As for the game, Manchester City rallies from a 3-0 deficit to win, 4-3. Edin Dzeko tallies twice for Manchester City and Micah Richards scores the winner in added time. “I’m a bit disappointed because we lost the game in the end,” Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech tells Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch afterward. “But in terms of entertainment for the people – which was fantastic to see so many people coming to the stadium to watch the game – and they had a pretty interesting evening.”