There were 26 Borussia Dortmund players on board Lufthansa flight LH 490 as it departed Frankfurt Airport for Seattle following a slight delay this morning. The German vice champions will face MLS club Seattle Sounders and Champions League winners Liverpool on their USA Tour.

"1909% football" will be the slogan for the Black & Yellows' third visit to the United States since May 2018. The first stop will be Seattle, the largest city in the northwest of the USA, where coach Lucien Favre and his 26-man playing squad will train in excellent conditions at a complex belonging to NFL club Seattle Seahawks. On Wednesday (19:30 local time), they will face burgeoning MLS team Seattle Sounders. Another friendly will follow two days later in South Bend, Indiana, the second stop on the five-day tour, as BVB take on Liverpool at 20:00 local time.

A (select) number of marketing activities have been pencilled in in close coordination with the sporting leadership. Favre will be without the injured Manuel Akanji and Marcel Schmelzer, as well as the injured youth players Luca Unbehaun (goalkeeper) and Patrick Osterhage (midfielder). Also among the absentees is Abdou Diallo, while the trio of Achraf Hakimi (Africa Cup of Nations), Mo Dahoud (U21 Euros) and Spanish youth international Sergio Gomez are still holidaying and not involved either.

The squad for the USA Tour: Bürki, Hitz, Oelschlägel, Balerdi, Hummels, Toprak, Zagadou, Morey, Piszczek, Schulz, Delaney, Weigl, Witsel, Brandt, Raschl, Reus, Reyna, Pherai, Bruun Larsen, Guerreiro, Hazard, Sancho, Wolf, Alcácer, Philipp, Götze (br)