All Nations Cup 2006

All Nations Cup 2006 was a football (soccer) tournament held between July 14 and July 29, 2006 in the Seattle area of Washington, USA between members of international communities of the region. The event includes football matches in four divisions (Open, Masters, Women's Regional, and Youth), as well as various cultural activities which are carried out between matches.

2006 marks the fourth year the All Nations Cup has been organised by Seattle area nonprofit Sister Communities. The tournament is held in the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, WA, and featured an opening ceremony hosted by the local Muckleshoot Tribe. Sponsors include Boeing, the Seattle Sounders, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Seattle Weekly.

Schedule

The tournament and festival took place over two weeks. Matches were played either in the stadium, or on one of three outside fields. The cultural festival was held on the stage inside the stadium.

The Open tournament was played in three stages: the qualifiers, round of 16, and knockout stage. These occurred on three consecutive weekends, with the matches of other divisions being played on the second weekend. The first weekend, July 14-16, was the Qualifiers Festival Weekend, in which the qualifier matches for the Open tournament were played, with cultural events also taking place. The second weekend, July 21-23, was when the round of 16 was played, as well as the Women's Regional, Masters, and Youth matches. On July 25-27, the quarterfinals and semifinals for the Open tournament were played, and the third place game and the final were held at the end of the week on Saturday, July 29.

Teams

A total of 37 teams entered in the tournament. Each one represents an international community from the greater Seattle area. They were divided into groups based on four geographic regions: Africa, Americas, Asia, and Europe.

Countries represented include Afghanistan, Bosnia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Denmark, Djibouti, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Gambia, Germany, Great Britain, Guatemala, Honduras, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia, Somalia, Sudan, Sweden, Tanzania, Tibet, Turkey, Ukraine, USA, and Vietnam

One team, representing Fiji, played only in the Masters division.

Open tournament - qualifiers

In the first weekend of the tournament, the teams played several qualifying matches within their region groups to determine who would go on to the finals stage. Each team played three matches against other teams in their group (with the exception of a match between Iran and Mexico). Points are awarded based on how teams score in each game. No points are given if a team does not score in a match, but 1 point is given if they lose after scoring at least one goal. A team receives 8 points for a win, and 9 or 10 if they win by a significant margin.

Four "crossover matches" were played at the end of the qualifiers weekend, on July 16, between the fourth- and fifth-ranked teams from the region groups. Unlike the other qualifying matches, these were played between teams from different groups; for example, the 4th-ranked team from the Europe group played a match against the 5th-ranked Asian team.

Qualifiers schedule

Americas

Open tournament - finals

On the second weekend the finals stage began.

Round of 16

Those teams that qualified for the finals moved on to the Round of 16. Unlike in the World Cup, the ANC's round of 16 is played in groups. The remaining 16 teams are split up into four groups of four, and each team plays each other team in their group.

The groups for the Round of 16 were drawn at 8:30 PM PDT on July 15. The top three teams from each region, as well as the winners of the Crossover matches, qualified for the Round of 16. As the returning champions, Team USA automatically qualified.

Group B

Knockout stage

The remaining eight teams entered the knockout stage. All of the matches in the knockout round were held in the main Stadium. Four teams were eliminated in the quarterfinals, and the remaining four competed in the semifinals. The winners of the semifinals contested the championship on July 29 (Championship Games Day), and the losers played a match for the third place title.

All times are Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-8)Round8-with third
July 25 (6:30 PM)|flagicon|MEX Mexico|2|flagicon|COL Colombia|1
July 25 (8:30 PM)|flagicon|BRA Brazil|2|flagicon|USA USA|3
July 26 (6:30 PM) - field|flagicon|RUS Russia|4|flagicon|GAM Gambia|0
July 26 (8:30 PM) - field|flagicon|PER Peru|2|flagicon|BIH Bosnia|3
July 27 (6:30 PM)|flagicon|MEX Mexico|1|flagicon|USA USA|2
July 27 (8:30 PM)|flagicon|RUS Russia (AET)|3|flagicon|BIH Bosnia|1
July 29 (6:00 PM)|flagicon|USA USA|1|flagicon|RUS Russia|2
July 29 (3:00 PM)|flagicon|MEX Mexico|5|flagicon|BIH Bosnia|3

Masters

Ten of the teams competed in the Masters division, for which a separate knockout tournament is held and a separate title awarded. The Fiji team only participated in the Masters, not in the main tournament. The Masters matches took place on the Finals Weekend (July 21-23).

Masters schedule

All times are Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-8)

Masters results

Group Y

The Masters Championship ended on Sunday, July 23. Team Romania became the 2006 ANC Masters Champions, with Team Iran taking second place.

Awards

Other games

For the first time, the Cup included a Women's Regional division. Teams in this division were based on region (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe) rather than nation. The Women's Regional matches took place on the Finals Weekend (July 21-23). Each team played each of the others in a series of friendly matches. The championship ended on Sunday, July 23 with a draw between the Africa and Americas teams.

As part of the event, multiple youth matches were organised. Instead of specific teams, the Youth division was based on age. The Youth matches took place on the Finals Weekend (July 21-23).

On Championship Games Day on July 29, an All-Star Match was held. Sides will be composed of all-star players from the various teams. The match took place at 1:00 PM in the Stadium.

Cultural events

During the initial weekend, various cultural activities and events took place in the Stadium between matches. These events reflected the variety of cultures represented in the tournament.

External links

* [http://www.allnationscup.org Official site]