Bayern Munich Arrives in Beijing, Plays at Bird's Nest Saturday Night

Reigning Bundesliga champions and 2014 Champions League winners Bayern Munich arrived in Beijing Thursday to start a three-city China pre-season tour.

As with many such tours by European sides, although the "team" has come to Beijing, major stars like Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery didn't make the trip, in this case due to injury, which makes Robben's appearance on the poster a bit of false advertising.

Bayern Munich will play Spanish side Valencia Saturday night (tonight) at the National Stadium (Bird's Nest), Inter Milan in Shanghai on July 21, and Guangzhou Evergrande on July 24 in Guangzhou.

In 2012, Bayern rather ungraciously defeated hosts Beijing Guo'an 6-0. Wie sagt man "face" auf Deutsch?

For city that's bidding for, ahem, a very large sporting event, albeit a winter one, Beijing is getting the short end of the soccer stick this summer. Teams like Champions League runners-up Juventus, Real Madrid, AC Milan, and Lazio are all playing in cities including Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, but not here. Beijing just loves sports, right?

The ticket site makes it look like the event is sold out, but as anyone who has ever been to a non-Olympics sporting event in Beijing knows, there's no such thing.

Photo: Sino-US