All Nations Cup

The All Nations Cup (formerly World Cup Seattle) is a football (soccer) tournament and cultural festival held annually in the region of Seattle, Washington, USA. Immigrant communities of the Seattle area, from countries all over the world, are represented both on and off the football pitch. The tournament and festival are organized by Seattle area nonprofit Sister Communities. Recently the tournament has been held at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila.

The inaugural event took place in 2003 over one weekend in August, and involved twelve teams. The following year it expanded to three weekends, with 31 teams competing, and in 2006 the event involved 37 different communities.

The All Nations Cup is played by various players who represent a national team. Unlike the FIFA World Cup, the players are selected from smaller leagues with smaller participating teams. The first round is played by 32 different teams in a group stage format. The top 16 teams are then chosen to go on to the second round of the tournament. At this stage, it becomes a knockout phase. Teams that win in this round move on to the quarterfinals. This continues into the semi-finals. The two teams that lose in the semi-final round play against each other for a third place round. The third place round is a single game in which the winner is then titled as the "third place team". The two winners of the semi-final round will compete for the championship and the winner is awarded with the All Nations Cup Trophy. The most successful team in the tournament is Brazil who have already one two championships in the tournament's four-year history. Similarly, The Brazil national football team has been the most successful team to play in the FIFA World Cup and have won five World Championships.

The festival will feature an art and film exhibition in partnership with SIFF, a World Grill with various foods from around the world, and a freestyle competition where attendees can show off their soccer skills. This year 43 countries will be represented at the All Nations Cup.

The 2007 final saw Brazil (the winner of the first edition of the All Nations Cup) beat Russia (last year's All Nation's Cup winner) 4:1 at the Memorial Stadium.

See also

* Year-specific pages for the tournaments: 2006 | 2007 | 2008
* FIFI Wild Cup

External links

* [http://www.allnationscup.org/default.aspx/ All Nations Cup official website]