| USA Cup celebrates 25 years of youth soccer |
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| Wednesday, 15 July 2009 | |
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by Jason Olson Staff writer Did you know Canada is the only foreign country to send a team to the Schwan’s USA Cup each of the first 24 editions of the annual summer soccer tournament? The USA Cup is split into two tournaments, a weekend tournament that starts today (Friday, July 17) and ends Sunday, July 19. Then the full tournament gets under way July 21, wrapping up with an awards presentation July 25. This weekend, the 25th Schwan’s USA Cup youth soccer tournament opens its doors to the world.  The official opening ceremonies are set for July 21 in the NSC Stadium at 8:15 p.m. The celebration includes an Olympic-style parade of teams, skydivers and fireworks followed by Schwan’s Fest concert featuring Panoramic Blue. What makes this year’s parade special is the marching in of the 11 clubs who have participated every year of the tournament. The largest gathering of youth soccer teams in the Western Hemisphere brings more than 13,000 players from 841 teams, 26 states and 12 countries to the nine-day extravaganza, which equates to an estimated economic boost of $17.5 million. A new item for this year is the level of new media available to teams. The National Sports Center is producing a daily highlight show, live webcasts of certain games, opening ceremonies and events plus social media presences on Twitter and Facebook. Kick TV is back for its third year with the structure of the show remaining the same with free content. A free daily e-magazine is also back that will offer tournament interviews, entertainment features and educational segments. Both will be available at www.usacup.org. The tournament began in 1985 with Sons of Norway inviting several Norwegian teams to play in Minnesota. The tournament was large that first year with 69 teams representing 51 local, 11 foreign and six out-of-state teams while opening ceremonies were at Burnsville High School. Five years later the National Sports Center and Blaine soccer complex opened as the largest in the world, according to Guiness Book of Records with 52 fields in one location. The reaches of the tournament are big with more than 60 referees coming from England alone and over 1,000 volunteers help to keep things rolling smoothly during the week, while an estimated 180,000 spectators, players, coaches, referees and volunteers will travel to the fields in Blaine at some point. One of the featured groups, Puma vElite Group brings eight hand-picked teams to its own grouping again this year. The pilot program last year offers a tournament within a tournament where four of Puma’s top clubs face four top clubs selected by USA Cup staff. The teams will compete in the U16 boys’ top flight. The teams come from Brooklyn, N.Y.; Charlotte, N.C.; Ontario, Canada; San Antonio, Texas; Rockford, Ill.; Snohomish, Wash.; London, England; and Lincoln Park, N.J. Each year the tournament has brought in a big name from the sports world including Pele, Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Ehtan Zohn, Freddy Adu, Alexi Lalas and last year’s special guest Samuel Eto’o. Jason Olson is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . |
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