Manchester City underline importance of iconic 2022 U.S. tour

Manchester City are back in the U.S. on a preseason tour for the first time since 2018 and the reigning Premier League champions know their time Stateside is important on so many levels.

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Most importantly their training sessions, plus games against Club America in Houston (July 20) and Bayern Munich at Lambeau Field (July 23), will prep them for their title defense and another push for all four trophies in 2022-23.

Having toured the U.S. six times since 2010, Manchester City are also fully focused on continuing to help the game, and their presence, grow in North America.

After not being able to tour over the past two summers due to travel restrictions surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic.

“There will be an energy from the crowd and that will galvanize the players. That is the role of the fans to do that and likewise for the players. It will be exciting and even though it’s a friendly, these teams do not play to not win, which is what we want to see!” Manchester City club legend and ambassador Joleon Lescott chuckled as he spoke to ProSoccerTalk (full interview above) before heading on tour with the team.

Lescott played on several U.S. tours for Manchester City himself and the former England international and PL title winner believes a positive tour of the United States of America in 2011 played a huge part in setting up City’s famous first-ever PL title win in 2011-12.

“Clubs have realized how do we make it [preseason] more enjoyable. When we won our first title in 2011-12 and that was probably the biggest factor and contributed to us having success,” Lescott explained.

“The way you can relax, you have to focus on training obviously, but after that there is downtime and things