Tampa, FL -- This Thursday teams will start arriving in the Tampa Bay area for the 2005 Super Y-League North American Finals.  The SYL Finals looks to draw over 7,500 visitors to the Ed Radice Sports Complex and the University of South Florida as 128 teams compete in 10 age brackets (U13-U17 Girls and U13-U17 Boys).  The event will take place November 18th - 22nd and will include a visit to the USL Players’ Village by U. S. Men’s National Team star Clint Dempsey.

The SYL Finals figures to be a true continental championship as teams will be coming from as far away as Vancouver, British Columbia (Vancouver Whitecaps FC), Danville, California (Mustang SC) and Ottawa, Ontario (Ottawa Fury) and from as short a distance as Hillsborough County, Florida (HC United).

Many teams look at the opportunity to compete in the Finals as their way to earn not just a national reputation, but a North American one.  “We have now proven ourselves as one of the top teams in the New England region,” said John Price, head coach of Seacoast United’s U17 Boys team.  “Now it is up to us to go out and prove it at the North American level.”

One of the new events that will be going on in conjunction with the Super Y-League Finals is the USL Players’ Village which will be open on Friday, November 18 from 4-8pm, Saturday, November 19 from 8:30am-8:30pm and on Sunday, November 20 from 8:30am-1pm. The Players’ Village is presented by Fox Soccer Channel (FSC), the nation’s premier soccer channel.

On Saturday, the Fox Soccer Channel booth will host a very special visitor, U.S. Men’s National Team midfielder Clint Dempsey, who will be signing autographs from 1-3pm.  Dempsey, a Nacogdoches, Texas native, has appeared in 13 games for the Nats this season, more than all of his teammates with the exception of fellow midfielders Landon Donovan and Steve Ralston.  His club team, the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer, also captured the regular season Eastern Conference crown, and suffered a narrow defeat to the Los Angeles Galaxy last weekend in MLS Cup.

The Players’ Village will be an interactive area open to all tournament participants, family, friends and members of the Tampa community. Fox Soccer Channel will showcase its programming by bringing in live feeds that include the Barclays English Premier League and Italian Serie A. In addition to displays set up by FSC and other companies, the Players’ Village will include free games and contests, a FIFA 2006 video game tournament, and a free raffle for amazing prizes including a jersey autographed by former SYL player and current DC United midfielder Freddy Adu.

“Fox Soccer Channel is pleased to join our partners, United Soccer Leagues, in sponsoring their inaugural SoccerFest event, and also show support for the nation’s young soccer talent,” said Veronica Alvarez, Director of Marketing and Communications for Fox Soccer Channel.

This year the SYL Finals will also host a showcase game featuring the Vancouver Whitecaps FC U16 Boys against the Chicago Magic U16 Boys.  The match will take place on Saturday, November 19th at 6:30pm at the Ed Radice Sports Complex, and will be shown on Fox Soccer Channel on Saturday, December 3rd at 8:00pm ET.

In addition to the other festivities, Fox Soccer USA, a 30-minute weekly show on FSC, will be taping segments, interviews and background footage during the Finals.  Fox Soccer USA profiles weekly soccer trends in the emerging soccer nation to engage viewers in everything they need to know about the beautiful game. 

The SoccerFest includes USL’s two largest annual events, the USL Annual General Meeting (AGM) October 28-31 and the Super Y-League North American Finals November 18-22.   The 2005 USL AGM featured 250 team executives converging on Tampa to attend meetings regarding scheduling, operations, FSC broadcasts and much more.  The weekend gave USL teams the ability to brainstorm and discuss issues pertinent to the development of soccer in North America.

The USL SoccerFest has been brought to Tampa as part of a multi-year partnership between USL and the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, in conjunction with the Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department.