The Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic is an annual preseason

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

tournament for clubs in North America. Hosted by

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

, it is contested at Hess Sports Fields' Field 17, part of the

ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex The ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is a multi-purpose sports complex located in the Walt Disney World, Walt Disney World Resort, in Bay Lake, Florida, Bay Lake, Florida, United States, near Orlando, Florida, Orlando. The complex includes ni ...

Lake Buena Vista Buena Vista, meaning "good view" in Spanish, may refer to: Places Canada * Bonavista, Newfoundland and Labrador, with the name being originally derived from “Buena Vista” *Buena Vista, Saskatchewan *Buena Vista, Saskatoon, a neighborhood in ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

. The tournament debuted with four teams in 2010 and is broadcast online by

ESPN3 ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360 and ESPN3.com) is an online streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications ( ...

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew, formerly known as Columbus Crew SC, is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as one ...

are the current holders of the trophy, having defeated

Sporting KC Sporting Kansas City, often shortened to Sporting KC, is an American men's professional soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The administrative offices are located in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and the team clubhouse and ...

4–1 in an overall dominant performance, finishing the tournament 4–0–1.

History

The inaugural event took place in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. Four

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

clubs—FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, the New York Red Bulls, and

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BM ...

were invited to participate in the weekend (Thursday through Saturday) knockout tournament. The tournament was held February 25–27, approximately one month before the

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of ...

kicked off on March 25. The tournament's first match was a scoreless draw between New York and Houston, with New York advancing on penalty kicks. Toronto then defeated Dallas in the second semifinal. The championship and consolation matches were played on Saturday, February 27, with the Dynamo rallying past Dallas, 2–1, to clinch third place and the Red Bulls defeating Toronto, 4–0, to clinch the title. The second edition featured expanded coverage, with the semifinals airing on MLSSoccer.com and the championship and consolation on ESPN3. Dallas, Toronto, and Houston returned from the inaugural edition; New York was replaced by host side, Orlando City, a recently relocated third division club playing in the

USL Professional Division The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...

. In the opener, the hosts were upended by

2010 MLS Cup MLS Cup 2010, the 15th edition of Major League Soccer's championship match, was played between the Colorado Rapids and FC Dallas to decide the champion of the 2010 season. The championship was played at BMO Field in Toronto, Ontario, Canada o ...

runner-up FC Dallas, 1–0, while Houston defeated Toronto, 3–2. In the consolation match, Orlando upset Toronto while FC Dallas earned their first-ever title with a 5–3 penalty kicks victory following a 1–1 draw. For the 2012 edition, Disney has announced plans to expand the tournament to eight clubs. Unlike the previous knockout formats, there were two groups of four clubs playing a group stage from February 24 through March 1 with a consolation and championship on March 3. Also, for the first time it included a team from outside the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and Canada league system with

BK Häcken Bollklubben Häcken, more commonly known as BK Häcken or simply Häcken (), is a Swedish professional football club based in Gothenburg. It currently plays in Allsvenskan, the top tier of Swedish football. Formed on 2 August 1940, Häcken has p ...

of Sweden's

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...

joining returning clubs FC Dallas, Toronto FC, Houston, and hosts Orlando and newcomers

Sporting Kansas City Sporting Kansas City, often shortened to Sporting KC, is an American men's professional soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The administrative offices are located in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and the team clubhouse and ...

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March ...

, and the Montreal Impact.

Results

By club

Future

In addition to the expansion to eight clubs for 2012, Disney envisions the tournament growing to encompass a combine where players aged 23 and under can make their case for MLS coaches and scouts along with providing a destination tournament for fans and families.

Clubs

References

{{Club soccer friendly tournaments in the United States American soccer friendly trophies Soccer cup competitions in the United States Soccer in Florida