It is always amazing how the National Sports Center (NSC)campus is transformed for 10 days every summer into the most fantastic soccer destination in North America.
In a matter of a few days and loads of long hours by NSC Operations the signage goes up, the Puma store is created, the Puma lab is installed, the inflatables are put in place and Schwan's USA CUP begins.
From the arrival of the first team at the airport, through final team check in to the start of games and activities everything runs like a well oiled machine.
This happens because of the teams that attend the tournament, the volunteers that give endless hours of time, the fantastic interns, the schedulers that make getting all the games played in a seamless style look easy, the sponsors that believe in USA CUP, the referees that keep coming back because they love the event...it is about family.
Because I go out and talk to teams all year about USA CUP when I see it all come together every July I need to say a personal thank you to all the teams that let us come and meet with them, to my international friends that work everyday to help bring international diversity to USA CUP, to the Minnesota coaches that organize their teams in spite of scheduling conflicts, to my colleagues at the National Sports Center - thank you for sharing the same passion that I have for USA CUP.
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