When Manchester United and Celtic leave the Rogers Centre after their exhibition soccer game Friday night, the playing surface won't be far behind them.

The domed stadium opened its doors to 18 tractor-trailer loads of sod Thursday to lay down a temporary grass field that will be returned from whence it came afterwards.

Specially grown for this application, the Kentucky bluegrass sod had grass guru Steve Schiedel talking as if it was his baby.

"A beautiful nice, tight, thick, dense turf," the vice-president of Greenhorizons Group of Farms said as rolls of his Ontario-grown sod were unfurled. "Excellent for a soccer ball to roll on. We're going to get a good, reasonable bounce on here."

Still, rolls of grass —even if they are the Cadillac of sod— on the concrete floor of the Rogers Centre are a far cry from the beautifully manicured pitches United and Celtic players are probably used to.

At top-flight clubs, practice is held at training centres while stadium pitches are off-limits —carefully nurtured under lights and sprinklers— between games.

The sod for the Rogers Centre comes from Burford, about 100 kilometres southwest of Toronto. And that's where it's headed after the final whistle.

"We're going to be rolling back up again, taking it back out to the field that it came from, unrolling it and ... tilling it back into the ground," Schiedel explained.

The temporary field was slated to be completed by early evening Friday, about the time Manchester United arrived at its hotel. The English Premier League team's first North American stop was Chicago, home of its United shirt sponsor AON.

United will go on to play Philadelphia (July 21), the Kansas City Wizards (July 25) and the MLS all-stars in Houston (July 28).

The United tour is being presented by Major League Soccer and Creative Artists Agency.

Celtic opened its North American tour with a 1-0 loss to the Philadelphia Union on Wednesday night.

Celtic will play the Seattle Sounders on Saturday before meeting Sporting Lisbon in Boston's Fenway Park on July 21.

While the touring United lineup is star-studded with the likes of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Edwin van der Sar, Darren Fletcher, Nani and Dimitar Berbatov, the English powerhouse will be without its World Cup players.

England's Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick, France's Patrice Evra, Serbia's Nemanja Vidic and South Korea's Ji-Sung Park have been given a month off to recuperate from the World Cup.

Mexico forward Javier Hernandez, however, is due to join the team in Houston on July 27.

Celtic, meanwhile, is revamping its lineup after its first trophyless season in seven years.

The Glasgow giant has signed Welsh international midfielder Joe Ledley, Mexican international defender-midfielder Efrain Jaurez, Scottish defender Charlie Mulgrew and South Korean defender Cha Du-Ri.

Going the other way are some nine players from last season including goalkeeper Artur Boruc (Fiorentina) and defender Stephen McManus, whose loan to Middlesbrough has been made permanent.

Midfielder Aiden McGeady may also be on the move. He was not included in the tour squad because of a thigh injury although reports suggest he may be headed to a team in England.

In advance of United, Celtic manager Neil Lennon will be keeping an eye on Friday's third qualifying draw for the Champions League in Switzerland.

It's United's third tour of North America since Sir Alex Ferguson took over as manager in 1986.

The Red Devils toured the U.S. in 2003 and 2004, but are adding Toronto to their itinerary this year.

For Ferguson, it's a chance to see family.

"My dad's family moved there in 1959," he told The Canadian Press in May. "I've got nine direct cousins. I've got about 40 second cousins. I've got an aunt still alive, and my grandmother died there. She's buried in Toronto. I've got an uncle buried there."

United has other ties to Canada. Current midfielder Owen Hargreaves was born and raised in Calgary while Hamilton-born Jimmy Nicholl played for the Red Devils from 1974 to 1982, scoring six goals in 247 games.

Both elected to play for the country of their father's birth rather than Canada. Hargreaves is an England international, while Nicholl, who was raised in Belfast, won 73 caps for Northern Ireland.

Hargreaves is not with the squad as he attends to chronic patellar tendonitis. United captain Gary Neville is also missing out on the tour because of a calf muscle tear.

The 68-year-old Ferguson, who took over United in November 1986, has won more than 30 trophies with the club. He is the longest-serving manager in English soccer, according to the League Managers Association which says there have been 969 managerial dismissals since he was appointed United boss.