The sites, cities and schedule is out and Benfica will be in the Southeast part of the USA when they hit the field. This is a bit of a blow to descendants of Portugal and Benfica fans that are heavily populated in the northeast part of the country. Can you say road trip....
Benfica will open the competition against Argentinian side Boca Juniors on June 16 at 6pm at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. They then face Auckland City of New Zealand on June 20 at 12pm, at Inter & Co. Stadium in Orlando. Their final group stage game will come against German side Bayern Munich on June 24 at 3pm in Charlotte at Bank of America stadium.
The top two sides in the group will advance to the round of 16 knockout stage and take on the top two clubs in Group D based on final standings. Group D participants include Chelsea, Flamengo, Leon and Esperance de Tunis. The tournament will be the first Club competition to have 32 clubs battling for the best club in the world.