Are you ready for some futbol?

November 25, 10:02 AMPhoenix Travel ExaminerJay Hammond

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For many Americans, Thanksgiving in sysnonymous with football. For a growing number of young people and their parents throughout Arizona, this American holiday is taking on an international flavor and becoming synonymous with futbol, or soccer as most Americans insist on caling it.

The 29th Annual Thanksgiving Tournament  will begin on Friday, Novemebr 28 and conclude with the finals match on Sunday, November 30, 2008. The tournament, hosted by the Pros Soccer Club, attracts international clubs as well as other clubs from around the Valley, state and region. Among this year's participants are clubs from Brazil and Canada. Soccer clubs from New Mexico, Colorado, California, Texas and Utah will also be playing. Nearly half of the more than 50 youth soccer clubs that call Arizona home will be represented including the local Pros Soccer Club, Mesa Soccer Club, Arizona Futbol Club (AZFC) and the Sereno Soccer Club just to name a few.

The history of soccer in Arizona has been a series of ups and downs. The Mesa Socer Club was established in the mid-1970's when there were only two soccer leagues in the Valley. Ray Ochoa, the first professional soccer player to come from Arizona played with the Mesa Soccer club as a boy. Another professional player from Arizona, one some call Arizona's first national soccer star, Greg Vanney founded the Arizona Futbol Club in 1997. After retiring from the Los Angeles Galaxy (the same team David Beckham plays with), Vanney was hired to replace Les Armstrong as the coach of the Serenos. Rumors of a possible merger between the two clubs is swirling but nothing has been confirmed.

 Unfortunately, professional soccer teams have not fared as well in Pheonix as the clubs, or even some professional players, have. The Arizona Thunder, Phoenix's professional soccer team, disbanded before the the 2001 season. Playing in one of the older sports venues in town and competing with the area's four other major professional sports teams - the Arizona Diamondbacks (baseball), the Phoenix Suns (basketball), the Arizona Cardinals (American football) and the Phoenix Coyotes (hockey) as well as the Phoenix Mercury (women's basketball and Arizona Rattlers (arena football), proved too much for the fledgling team to overcome. In 2007, however, the Copa PanAmericana Tournament was palyed to record soccer crowds raising the hopes of local fans that professional soccer may, someday, return to Phoenix.

The Thanksgiving Tournament games will be played at the CAP Basin and the Tempe Sports Complexes. The CAP Basin Sports Complex, located at 8081 E. Princess Drive in Scottsdale, is a 71-acre state-of-the-art competitive sport feild complex and detention basin for the Bureau of Reclamation property behind the Central Arizona project dike. Opened in 2006, the CAP Basin Sports complex was recognized as the Public Works Project of the Year in 2007 by the American Public Works Association. The Tempe Sports Complex, built in 2005, is located at 8401 S. Hardy Drive in Tempe. It houses soccer feilds, ball feilds, a dog park and a 30,000 square-foot skatepark. Game times vary, so check the schedules for your favorite club and age groups. Admission is free for spectators.