ROME, Italy – An evening after picking up its first exhibition win of its current Italian tour, the Illinois State men's basketball team took in another first for most of the players – a professional soccer match at Stadio Olimpico.
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The Redbirds took in the exhibition match between La Roma and Real Madrid, which was won by the home team to the delight of the thousands of La Roma fans in the stadium.
"This was the first professional soccer match that I had been to," said ISU sophomore Dedric Boyd. "I really enjoyed my time there. It was a lot of fun. The crowd goes wild. They are really into the game – it's amazing."
"It was a great match," said freshman Harouna Sissoko. "There was a lot of energy from the beginning of the match until the end. I had to explain a lot about soccer to my teammates, and taught them a lot of stuff that they didn't know – it was a lot of fun."
The Redbirds close out their stay in Rome with a tour of the Vatican tomorrow morning, before then making the trek to Florence, where it will face off against BC Silute on Tuesday evening.
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