Taking lead in soccer
South Florida is at the center of a growing interest.
This week marks the second consecutive year the International Champions Cup will make a stop in Miami.
And the international soccer tour fits naturally in Miami for several reasons.
For one, Relevent Sports, the founder of the ICC, is an entity of RSE Ventures, the company founded by Miami Dolphins owner Steve Ross. He was inspired by a 2011 match between FC Barcelona and Chivas Guadalajara to start the ICC and invest in the growth of soccer in the US.
Secondly, Miami is on the forefront of the soccer craze that’s growing in the country. The highest television ratings for the 2018 World Cup came from the Miami/ Fort Lauderdale market.
“We’ve experienced a great deal of success engaging with the community, hence why we have a week full of not only one international cup match, but two matches, House of Soccer, two days of wom- en’s matches with two matches each day,” said Relevent CEO Daniel Sillman.
“We have open trainings for the clubs at the stadium, we have a
multicultural soccer conference. We have so much going on, because we’ve seen such a massive demand for this sport.”
That demand showed itself most prominently last year, when FC Barcelona and Real Madrid met in Miami for El Clasico as 66,014 people packed into Hard Rock Stadium for the culmination of a week that featured events similar to this week.
The main difference this year is the inclusion of women’s matches, with semifinals Thursday and first and third-place games Sunday.
“We feel that it’s our obligation, now that we have the platform, to grow the women’s game as much as we’re growing the men’s,” Sillman said.
“We need to be focusing on growing a sport where we can import some of the best women from around the world, give them a chance to play against American women and create like a club, World Cup model for women’s soccer.”
On the men’s side, the teams are some of the most elite in the world. Manchester City, last year’s winners of the English Premier League, will take on Bayern Munich, the 2017-18 Bundesliga champions, on Saturday. Then, two of the most successful teams in European soccer history, Manchester United and Real Madrid, will play Tuesday.
The ICC is valuable for them, not only because it helps expand the game in the United States, but also because it serves as preseason tune-ups for the regular season.
“It’s getting bigger and bigger all the time, the knowledge of the fans, the passion of the fans here in the United States,” said Paul Dickov, a former Manchester City player who is traveling with the team for the ICC.
“It’s fantastic to see. I know myself, from being a player previously and being a manager, that the preparation preseason goes so far into what you do once the season starts.”
Schedule
Today
ICC women’s semifinals: NC Courage vs Paris SaintGermain, 6:15 p.m., Hard Rock Stadium; Olympique Lyonnais vs Manchester City, 9 p.m., Hard Rock Stadium
Friday
House of Soccer: 4-9 p.m., Mana Wynwood
Open training: Bayern Munich and Manchester City, Hard Rock Stadium Saturday
ICC men: Bayern Munich vs Manchester City, 7 p.m., Hard Rock Stadium Sunday
Youth Coaching Clinic for boys and girls ages 5-14: 2-5 p.m., Hard Rock Stadium
ICC women’s third-place match: 6:15 p.m., Hard Rock Stadium
ICC women’s final: 9 p.m., Hard Rock Stadium Monday
Open Training: Real Madrid, Hard Rock Stadium
Tuesday
ICC men: Manchester United vs Real Madrid, 8 p.m., Hard Rock Stadium
For more information, go to https://www.internationalchampionscup.com/