Copa Panamericana Begins Today!
The arrival of the Beckhams in Los Angeles isn't the only big soccer news. The Copa Panamericana tournament which begins Monday evening at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, is bringing some of the best players on two continents to Phoenix for a week.
Six teams divided into two groups will play three games to decide which two teams will face each other in Sunday's championship game. The teams are:
- Alianza Lima from Peru
- America from Mexico
- Boca Juniors from Argentina
- Caracas from Venezuela
- Cruz Azul from Mexico
- Deportivo Cali from Colombia
Alianza Lima faces Boca Juniors in the first game at 6 p.m. tonight. That game will be followed, at about 8:10 p.m., with a match between Cruz Azul and Deportivo Cali. The remaining two teams, Club America and Caracas, will make their first tournament appearance on Wednesday. The most anticipated game, other than the championship match, is Friday's meeting of Club America and Boca Juniors.
The last soccer match at the University of Phoenix was played this spring to a sold out crowd of 62,462, setting a record for state soccer attendance. Unlike the Copa, that match pitted the U.S. and Mexican national teams against one another. The teams playing in the Copa are club teams, not national teams, so attendance is anticipated to be somewhat lower.
