The Portland Invitational begins 11am Saturday June 14 with No. 3 Denver Bulldogs (0-3), No. 8 Seattle Grizzlies (1-1), the Vancouver Cougars and the hosts the Portland Power (1-1). The tournament will take place at John Deere Field in Gresham OR. This is a big tournament for Portland and one of the bigger tournaments in USFooty with 4 teams, 100 players and lots of spectators and onlookers. The tournament will give Denver an opportunity for redemption after they travelled to Florida earlier in the year. It will also be an opportunity for Seattle and Portland to show who's best after going and 1-1 in their home and home series. Vancouver are the current Pacific North West Australian Football League champions and they will be looking to put their stamp on things.

The match format will be 2 x 20 minute halves with all teams to play 3 matches. The tournament winner will be decided by matches won and percentage.

11:00 am - Portland v No. 3 Denver
12:00 pm - Vancouver BC v No. 8 Seattle
1:00 pm - Portland v No. 8 Seattle
2:00 pm - No. 3 Denver v Vancouver BC
3:00 pm - Portland v Vancouver BC
4:00 pm - No. 3 Denver v No. 8 Seattle

The last game of the day sees the No. 3 Denver Bulldogs take on the No. 8 Seattle Grizzlies in a game that will have big implications for the USFooty News Top 10 and USFooty Nationals in October.

Portland Coach, Glen Green, is excited to host such a tournament. "We had a good turn-out at training last night and welcomed back our Club President Mark O’Brien, who will be a fine addition in a key position on Saturday. I expect us to be very tough at home. The venue of our convincing first-up victory over the Grizzlies in April and will certainly be fielding a much stronger line-up than for the game versus Seattle in Chehalis." Seattle Coach, Andrew Donlen, is looking forward to some tough games. "We are xpecting three tough games, Portland of course want to do well at home, Denver are the reigning national champs and Vancouver are bringing a strong squad. Our goal will be to play with consistent intensity over three games and to get the new players a taste of tournament football."

Vancouver has a four team local league that has just played 6 rounds with the West Coast Saints on top. The Cougars team is a representative team for the league. The Cougar's Peter Campion is looking forward to the challenge of the tourney. "We know Denver is a strong side and are the current first division champions in the US. We have a few boys on our team that will be representing Canada later this year in Australia at the International tournament. They are looking forward to playing against Denver as a large number of the US national team comes from their team. Seattle always produced some strong teams and we would expect the to be a usual a tough opponent. This is the first time we will see the Portland team. As a team we do not know what to expect but we know a few of their players and will not take them lightly."

Be first to comment this article

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.6
AkoComment © Copyright 2004 by Arthur Konze - www.mamboportal.com
All right reserved