Wrexham, former U.S. men’s and women’s national team players, a Spanish football legend and TikTok stars are competing for $1 million in a 7v7 tournament — and it’s happening at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina.
Yes, you read that right.
What seems like the most fanciful of fever dreams is a reality at The Soccer Tournament (TST), going on now in North Carolina’s Research Triangle. Set up like the World Cup, 32 teams signed up for the tournament which is set up with groups of four competing in a round-robin group stage and a round of 16 single-elimination knockout before the finals. The five-day event concludes Sunday, June 4 with the winning team claiming the collective $1 million prize. Second place, as the organizer says, gets nothing.
From the founders of The Basketball Tournament, which started in 2014 by Jon Mugar, the idea of TST was born in 2020 when soccer players Mike Volk and Henry Tembon reached out to Mugar about the soccer version of the competition. With the help of former MLS star Alecko Eskandarian, and NBA’s Chris Paul, TST began.
The Athletic has on-the-ground coverage all weekend from Pablo Maurer and Felipe Cardenas, but here are a few quick hits to get you up to speed.
Where and when is the TST tournament?
The TST tournament is taking…
