Once again Blaine will become the center of the soccer universe as the city hosts this popular event. This year the USA Cup is celebrating a milestone birthday.
“We’re really excited,” said Sara Soli from the National Sports Center. “It’s our 40th Target USA Cup. We’re gonna welcome more than 1,250 teams from 17 countries and 27 states.”
This will be the most teams ever to play in the tournament – and they come from everywhere on earth.
“We have a team from Uruguay, which is the first time we’ve ever had anyone from there,” Soli said. “We have girls teams for the first time from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.”
Besides players there are coaches, family members, friends and many others who descend on the North Metro.
“We have over 525 referees from across the world coming as well,” Soli said. “It will be an international event here in Blaine.”
Opening ceremonies are a colorful event
Opening ceremonies at the USA Cup are always a treat – a colorful event with plenty of pomp and circumstance.
“Opening ceremonies on Tuesday the 15th will be the big culmination of everyone coming together and celebrating,” Soli said. “There’ll be music, entertainment, all those other things.”
The USA Cup is an inclusive tournament where everyone is invited to the party.
“We welcome everyone,” Soli said. “We do know that there are teams that decided maybe this wasn’t the year to come for them and we understand that. That doesn’t mean they’re still not our friends and we won’t welcome them back again next year. Soccer is a safe space. We want this to be a celebration of the sport and of the world.”
The USA Cup is clearly soccer-centric, but there are plenty of other activities too.
“Our partner Target sets up these great activities across campus,” Soli said. “Which really gives kids things to do in between games or for their younger or older siblings to do when they’re tired of watching them play.”
Explosive growth
The USA Cup started with humble beginnings but has had explosive growth since the first tournament was staged four decades ago.
Said Soli: “This started as a very simple, small tournament on a few fields and now we’re playing on nearly 60 fields.”
This soccer jamboree has definitely put Blaine on the map.
“The Target USA Cup is special, more so than the 3M Open on bringing the world to the city of Blaine to play,” said Blaine Mayor Tim Sanders. “It’s one of my favorite slogans, ‘where the world comes to play for the Target USA Cup.’ 1200 teams, about 40 different countries represented. It truly, truly is a really special place. As the city of Blaine we really lean into being a sports and recreation community between the Target USA Cup and the 3M Open.”
“I think Blaine is really shaping up to be the sports capital of Minnesota,” Soli said. “The USA Cup is just one of those events that makes it so.”
The National Sports Center is one of the largest youth sports complexes in the world and opened in 1990.
