Everton’s first pre-season game started with the US national anthem, an overhead fly-past and fireworks.
The players, just like at Goodison Park, entered the pitch to Z Cars but, unlike in L4, did so in Baltimore through a smoke-filled tunnel. While the Blues were second best to an Arsenal squad further along in their pre-season preparation, there was plenty of action – and interest – throughout the 90 minutes.
Beyond the highlights, here are a few moments you may have missed from the action on the eastern coast of the USA.
They tend to love high-scoring matches in American sports, and clearly they were expecting the same from Everton’s clash with Arsenal. The Blues were kicking off their pre-season preparations with a trip to the M&T Bank Stadium, usually home of the NFL side the Baltimore Ravens. In that sport, it would be quite rare to see a game finish in single digits for both teams.
But while the huge screens inside the ground were being tested before the match on Saturday evening, they clearly thought the following 90 minutes were going to be much more exciting than they actually were. In fact, they predicted quite a bizarre first half if truth be told. Not only did the scoreboard display a score of 5-4 to Everton at one point, as shown by club photographer Tony McArdle’s images from the stadium, but it also believed that the first half was going to be over 80 minutes long. Well it would have made for an interesting game, we’ll give it that.
