Premier League champions Manchester City will play in Minnesota this summer, taking on Olympiakos at TCF Bank Stadium on August 2nd – but they won’t be the first Premier League team to visit our state this year.

Swansea City, 12th in England’s (and Wales’s) top division this year, will take on Minnesota United at the National Sports Center on July 19, as part of a preseason tour that will see them train for two weeks in Chicago, and play Mexican side Chivas Guadalajara in Milwaukee.

A 7:00pm kickoff is planned, and tickets – which will no doubt be in short supply – will go on sale to United season ticket holders before they are available to the general public.

“To be the first club in Minnesota history to host a match against a team from the Barclay’s Premier League is a thrill and an honor,” said United team president Nick Rogers in a press release.

Said Swansea manager Garry Monk in the same release, “I’ve heard positive things about Minnesota United FC,” said Swansea manager Garry Monk. “They are a great organization with a strong ownership group and are doing exciting things with their club. I know they traveled to England during their preseason, stayed at St. George’s Park and faced clubs like Derby County.”

This is, without a doubt, the biggest exhibition game ever planned for a Minnesota pro soccer team, topping the 2007 matchup with a David Beckham-led Los Angeles Galaxy side, and a 2008 friendly between the Thunder and Burnley, who were at that time in England’s second division. Swansea will be the first Premier League team to visit Minnesota, and Minnesota will be the first NASL club to host a Premier League team.

The match poses an interesting conundrum for United coach Manny Lagos. No doubt most of the team will want a chance to take the field against Swansea, but the team plays Carolina in a regular league game on Thursday night, two days prior to the match. Will Lagos be willing to risk players twice in three days, especially smack dab in the middle of the league season?

Regardless of coaching problems, one thing is for certain: an exciting summer for soccer fans in Minnesota just got a little more exciting.

Update: The below appeared at SoccerCentric.

As David La Vaque wrote this morning, Premier League side Swansea City will play United on July 19 at the National Sports Center in Blaine. Be sure to read that article; he talks to team president Nick Rogers about the connection between this visit and United’s training trip to England, and whether this has any meaning for the future of MLS for the franchise.

A couple of other notes:

*The only two previous exhibitions that are comparable to this game (at least in the modern era – I can’t speak for the Kicks / Strikers era) are two from back when Minnesota’s pro soccer team was called the Thunder. In late 2007, a David Beckham-led Los Angeles Galaxy played the Thunder in the Metrodome. The following summer, Burnley – then in the English second division, though they will be in the Premier League next year – visited for a similar summertime exhibition at the NSC.

The Galaxy match drew more than 20,000 fans, a number that  – given the NSC’s capacity of around 7,500 – this Swansea match can’t hope to approach. In my opinion, though, despite Beckham’s star power, having a Premier League side come to Minnesota is a much, much bigger deal.

The Burnley match in 2008 drew 6,000 or so fans to the NSC; I have no idea what the team announced for attendance, but I was there in the stands. Plus, a good third of those fans were youth teams, in town for the USA Cup soccer tournament.

This match is also during the USA Cup, so I imagine there will be plenty of kids – but I would also be completely shocked if the match didn’t sell out.

*It’s worth noting that this match does not fall into the NASL’s summer break. In fact, United has a game the previous Thursday night, against Carolina at the NSC.

It poses an interesting conundrum for head coach Manny Lagos. I have little doubt that he’ll put the league match first, especially if United fails to win the first half of the season and is still in the playoff race. That said, will he want to risk some of his most important players by playing them twice in three days? Will he be willing to play some of his older veterans in that short time frame? Will the players, all of whom get extremely excited for these types of matches, look past Thursday’s match in anticipation of Saturday?

*There’s no doubt that the most excited person in the metro today is Star Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse, who announced last month that he is now a hardcore Swansea City fan. Reusse made the decision, having grown sick of the Twins’ bullpen management, after careful thought and consultation with radio partner Judd Zulgad, and now his decision is already paying off.