The team took the field for the first time on August 1, 1976 in a pre-season game against the San Francisco 49ers in the then newly constructed Kingdome.

Tampa Bay did not win their first game until the 13th week of their second season, starting with a record of 0 – 26 ( though the Bucs had beaten the Atlanta Falcons 17 – 3 in a 1976 pre-season game before their first regular season ).

The pre-season betting was that Senna would coast to the title, but with the banning of electronic driver aids, the Benetton team and Michael Schumacher initially proved more competitive and won the first three races.

The first pro game played in the stadium was a pre-season game between the New York Jets and the Minnesota Vikings in 1975.

Milner made his first appearance for Newcastle United during their pre-season tour of Asia, scoring his first goal for the club in a 1 – 1 draw against Kitchee, in Hong Kong.

For ESPN's first pre-season game of 2012, the timeout indicators were also accompanied by two smaller red lamps to the right, indicating the number of play challenges remaining, but these were unexpectedly removed the following game.

Owen scored his first goal for United on his debut, scoring an 84th-minute winner after coming on as a substitute in a pre-season friendly against a Malaysian XI ; he followed this up by scoring three more goals in United's pre-season games.

Owen netted his first goal for United back from injury in a 7 – 1 pre-season victory against a League of Ireland XI on 4 August 2010 at the newly built Aviva Stadium.

Less known, it was also the venue for the first game between NFL teams ever played on the European continent, as Minnesota Vikings faced Chicago Bears, in a pre-season game, 14 August 1988.

* September 23-goaltender, Manon Rhéaume became the first woman to play in the National Hockey League during a pre-season game, and also the first woman ever to play in one of the Big Four Pro Sports.

After losing their only two pre-season games, they played their first game July 4, 1995, versus the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Winnipeg.

* August 22, 2003: The Philadelphia Eagles hosted the New England Patriots in the first pre-season football game at Lincoln Financial Field.

In 1986, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Montreal Alouettes played the first pre-season game in the Canada Games Stadium at Saint John, New Brunswick.

Harvey played in St Kilda ’ s 1996 Ansett Australia Cup winning side, the club's first pre-season cup win .< ref >

Rüştü had a successful pre-season with Barcelona in his first season, until injury hit him.

In Bruce's first pre-season with the club, his overhaul of the playing squad continued.

Sturrock faced the tough task of rebuilding the Southend side with only five first team players available for selection at one stage of pre-season, with only Anthony Grant, Matt Paterson and Scott Spencer surviving.

Keane's first games at Forest came in the Under-21s team during a pre-season tournament in Holland.

Lee Bradbury's first full season in charge began with a pre-season visit to Hamworthy Recreation, a game that ended in a 10 – 0 win for Bournemouth.

The first match was against Derby County in a pre-season friendly which Derby won 5 – 4, Craig Davies becoming the first goalscorer at the stadium.

In a rematch of their August match-up, Betancourt got Edgar Rentería to pop out on the infield for the first out.

Sampras did not advance past the quarterfinals in his next three tournaments, although he did record wins over world number 79 Jim Courier in their first career match-up, and world number 8 Tim Mayotte.

He won a Grand Slam singles match for the first time at the French Open, before losing in the second round to eventual champion, 17-year-old Michael Chang, in their first career match-up.

As a result, the Flyers endured a long, brutal seven-game first round match-up with Toronto that featured three multiple overtime games, all in Toronto.

The Flyers fell short of an Atlantic Division title, finishing second by tie-breaker to New Jersey, drawing the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference and a first round match-up with fourth-seeded Buffalo.

They won the division by just one point, giving them home-ice advantage in their first round match-up with the Caps.

Two of the replicas were featured in a dogfight with F-14 Tomcats ; a dissimilar engagement that was the first time that " the match-up of fighters with totally different speeds, totally different environments and weaponry had ever been done in film ".

In retrospect, this match may have been a Pyrrhic victory because Platini's brilliance drew the attention of Italy coach Enzo Bearzot, who devised a successful plan to contain him in a match-up that really mattered — the first round of the 1978 World Cup four months later.

However due to not having the games start at a standardized time, and the failure of the NFL of recording the start times, historians can not determine for sure which two team played in the first league match-up.

Player-manager Lou Boudreau listed Doby as a starter in the Indians ' match-up with the White Sox and accompanied Doby as he met his new teammates for the very first time.

The duo would contribute to a productive season for Saskatchewan as they finished with a 7-7-2 record and won a playoff series for the first time since 1956 before losing their first playoff match-up with the BC Lions.

He recorded his first career triple-double in the very next game, tallying 19 points, 17 rebounds, and a career-best 11 blocked shots in another match-up against Muresan and the Bullets.

Early in 2005, Augenthaler was in turn fired as manager after the club got off to their worst Bundesliga start in over twenty years, with only one win in their first four league matches and a ( 0 – 1 ) home loss to CSKA Sofia in the first leg of their UEFA Cup match-up.

In 1884, Denny helped the National League champion Grays defeat the New York Metropolitans of the American Association in the major leagues ' first post-season championship match-up.

In a week 13 Sunday Night Football match-up with the Steelers, he suffered a pulled hamstring on the first offensive snap for Baltimore, taking him out of the game.

The Pirates were in the World Series for the first time since the heroics of Bill Mazeroski ( who appeared in this series as a pinch-hitter in Game 1 ) in Game 7 of the 1960 match-up against the New York Yankees.

In the Giants ' match-up with the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2002 NLCS, Lofton delivered a key hit to help the Giants win their first pennant since 1989.

The Rangers won their first round match-up against the Islanders, but lost to the Capitals in the second round.

The team made it to their first ever CBA Finals match-up thanks to the play of former NBA All-Star Stephon Marbury.

The first match-up was against the Alabama Renegades.

The next week, Iowa won their first regular season match-up since 2001 ( their 75th overall ), defeating the Quad City Steamwheelers 58 – 38 on April 19 in Moline, Illinois.