Benfica vs. Glasgow Rangers, on grass, at Tim Hortons Field

Friendly match between two of the world’s most famous soccer teams scheduled for Oct. 6.

Two of the world’s most famous soccer teams will play a friendly match at Tim Hortons Field, and they will be playing it on a grass surface.

Rangers, the Glasgow team which has won more Scottish championships than any other team, will play Benfica, the Lisbon team which has won more Portuguese championships than any other team, in the Eusebio Cup at 7 p.m., Friday, Oct. 6.

The Eusebio Cup is being promoted by Elite Soccer Entertain- ment of Brampton, with organizational and game-day support from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

“I hope it will be a full house,” Elite Soccer Entertainment president Fernando Pacheco told The Spectator Friday. “You couldn’t ask for a better opportunity to promote soccer in Hamilton. The field is beautiful.”

And it’s covered with artificial turf, which top men’s international teams — and these are two of the most storied teams in the world — do not wish to play on.

Pacheco has an agreement with Hamilton’s Greenhorizons Sod Farms (formerly Hamilton Sod) to bring in rolls of natural sod to lay down on top of the artificial turf. The company has worked on four major soccer matches at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, and uses 17 to 18 semi-trailers of sod to cover a field, according to Greenhorizons’ president, Steve Schiedel.

“Hamilton and Tim Hortons Field are being put on a global stage,” said Matt Afinec, the TigerCats’ executive vice-president of business operations. “Tim Hortons Field is developing a reputation not just nationally but internationally.”

The friendly is dedicated to Eusebio da Silva Ferreira, known simply as Eusebio, or the Black Panther or the Black Pearl, who was one of the greatest footballers of all time.

The magnificent striker scored 638 goals in 614 games for Lisbonbased Benfica.

The Eusebio Cup has been played since 2008, with all but the 2015 game (at Guadalupe, Mexico), held at Lisbon’s Estadio da Luz. It has featured such renowned sides as Inter Milan, Tottenham Hotspur, Ajax and Real Madrid against Benefica. Generally, the game takes place during pre-season training in August but this year, it’s during soccer’s October international break.

Tim Hortons Field has hosted several soccer internationals in 2015: all of the Pan Am Games soccer schedule, plus a June preWomen’s World Cup game between Canada and England.