Sports
St. Louis Park Gets Set for Schwan's Cup
The annual soccer tournament in Blaine attracts teams from all over the world.
Three St. Louis Park youth soccer teams will compete in the Schwan’s USA Cup weekend tournament Friday through Sunday at Blaine’s National Sports Center.
St. Louis Park will have two boys teams competing in the under-9 age level, and one under-12 girls team.
The USA Cup weekend tournament hosts boys and girls teams both nationally and internationally from ages U9 to U19. There will be 450 teams competing in Blaine over the course of the weekend.
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Teams from across the U.S. will compete at the weekend tournament, including squads from Minnesota, Illinois, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Texas, Iowa, New York, Missouri, Utah, California and Alaska.
Internationally, 55 teams from Canada, three from Costa Rica, two from Sweden and Puerto Rico, and one from Uganda, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Mexico will compete.
Find out what's happening in St. Louis Parkfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The USA Cup was started in 1985 by the Sons of Norway and was modeled after the Norway Cup. In those 26 years, the tournament has grown rapidly. Sixty-two teams competed in the tournament's first year. Combined with the week-long tournament that runs from July 19-23, 936 teams will compete in Blaine this year.
According to usacup.org, 917 teams and 13,300 players competed last year at the tournament. It has an out-of-state impact of $18 million per year and is the largest youth soccer tournament in the Western Hemisphere.
All games will be played at the National Sports Center, a 600-acre multi-sport facility that includes 52 soccer fields. For a full schedule, click here.
