July 13th marked the kick off of the USA Cup soccer tournament in Blaine, MN. Teams from Canada, Japan, Iceland, Brazil and more visited the National Sports Center. The USA Cup, now the largest tournament in the western hemisphere, was started in 1985. Molded after the Norway Cup, it was originally started by the Sons of Norway, a fraternal benefit organization. Read the history here.

As you may know, I am the proud coach the U-17 C1 girls team: Blaine Bobcats. We look forward to the excitement of the tournament all year long (many players counting down the days until the tournament returns year after year). Growing with the tournament as a young player, and now continuing to coach in the tournament today is certainly a special opportunity. Teams travel around the globe to come play the “beautiful game” with us in Blaine, MN.

The Bobcats took to the Field at 2pm Tuesday July 13th for our first match vs Coon Rapids Heat; a strong battle that ended in a 2-2 tie. Following up with a game Wednesday at 3:45pm vs Saskatchewan, Canada. Falling short in a 5-1 loss, the Bobcats learned and respected the the strengths and discipline of this team. Thursday morning We played East Gwillimbury Talons from Ontario. Capitalizing with a 3-2 win, we moved on to play Coon Rapids Fire, which would be our last game of the tournament in a 4-0 loss–I believe the team was saving their energy for our district playoff game which was later played the same day at 7pm (which we won).

Until next year, we’ll miss you USA CUP!

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 18th, 2010 at 6:32 PM and is filed under Athletic Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.