N.C . State’s Carter-Finley Stadium played host to some of the world’s finest professional soccer players on Thursday, marking the first time the facility has ever been used as a soccer field. The 27-time Italian Serie A champions, Juventus F.C ., defeated Mexico’s C.D . Guadalajara, otherwise known as Chivas , in a relatively uneventful 1-0 bout. Of the 16,124 in attendance, only a few N.C . State students and alumni were sprinkled amongst the crowd with an estimated 10,000 Chivas fans present from the local Latino community. Despite losing with the twelfth man on their side, Chivas coach José Luis Real was elated with the fan turn-out from the Raleigh area.

“For us, it is very important to have the support of all of the fans who like Chivas ,” Real said. “Not only the Mexican fans but also all the Latin Americans who are watching right now. To Mexican soccer, it’s very important and we like seeing them wearing our jerseys in the stadium.”

Both teams fielded a 4-4-2, neither of which with a full first-team squad. Chivas , whose regular season starts this week, could not risk fielding all of their starters due to potential injury. Many of Juventus’ regular starters began on the bench, including big names such as Gianluigi Buffon , Alessandro Del Piero , Andrea Pirlo , and Vincenzo Iaquinta .

Possession was back and forth for the first ten minutes. In the twelfth minute, Italian forward Fabio Quagliarella gave Juventus and Italian national team fans alike the game’s only goal after Chivas left fullback Jonny Magallón missed a clearance in the box, which Quagliarella quickly jumped onto and easily put low in the left corner.

One goal was good enough for Juventus , who took their lead and attempted to play the possession game while Chivas attempted to fight back. As hard as they tried, Guadalajara just could not manage to put the majority of their shots on goal. Chivas had a few penetrating runs through the center of the field but could not penetrate the Juve back four and did little to take advantage of the wings. Neither side was effective on set pieces, despite the on-field set-piece expertise of Del Piero and Pirlo .

Sean Smith, a senior in international studies and citizen of Italian descent, was not surprised by the relaxed nature of the game after Juventus took the lead.

“They were comfortable with that 1-0 lead,” Smith said. “That’s Italian soccer. It’s predominantly defensive. They get that 1-0 and that’s how most teams win.”

Despite the valiant effort of the Mexican internationals, it was no surprise that Juventus was victorious. After the game, Juve’s coach, Antonio Conte , was just as content with Carter-Finley’s conditions as he was with his team’s performance.

“The facility is quite lovely,” Conte said. “Certainly the only disadvantage of playing in such a beautiful facility is the heat. The pitch was amazing with the exception of certain patches on the flank. It’s great because the intimacy of the fans with respect to the players. It’s very important for the players to feel the heat of the fans and the crowd being excited about playing here. We were very pleased to play here with the exception of the heat, which was something that was more than we had expected in our preseason training.”

It took one day to convert Carter-Finley’s pitch to the World Football Challenge’s standards. 15 feet of sod had to be laid down on both length-sides of the field to get it to its final dimensions of 195-by-360 feet, resulting in the intimate nature of the stands in relation to the grass.

Junior international studies major and soccer fan Kyle Hatley was pleased with the presentation put on by Juve and Chivas despite the low scoring nature of the game.

“It wasn’t as fast-paced as I would have hoped for,” Hatley said. “And obviously there weren’t a whole lot of goals scored, either. But I thought it was cool to see some players that won the World Cup for Italy in 2006. I’d definitely go to something like that again; it had a good atmosphere. I’d like to see a team from the [English] Premiere League.”

Smith shared the same sentiment, saying he would love to attend future competitions of the same nature at Carter-Finley.

“Absolutely,” Smith said. “I wouldn’t think twice.”