The Red Diamond Vulcan Cup, located in Birmingham, Alabama, is the Southeast’s premier club soccer tournament. They are a prime source for preseason competition with games played on top-quality Bermuda grass fields. Participating teams face-off with opponents representing different states in one venue. 

The Vulcan Cup had humble beginnings. Skip Brock, director of the tournament, comments, “We were called the Mount Brook Soccer Club then. We wanted to hire a Director of Coaching but didn’t have the money. That was the source of the idea to put on a tournament. The first year, we had a total of 110 teams, a tornado on Friday night, and a flood on Saturday morning. We still managed to get half of the games played. The next year, we had 130 teams. It’s grown since then.”

And how they’ve grown. In 2008, the Vulcan Cup, hosted by the Birmingham United Soccer Association, gathered 324 club soccer teams from 14 states. It has been established over the past 10 years as a competitive tournament attracting top play with a broad geographic draw. The Vulcan Cup promises a great tournament organized through years of seasoned expertise.

The Vulcan Cup offers three divisions in each age group to offer competition that is on par with each team’s level of play. Each team is carefully paired up prior to make sure that every participant is getting fair contest. The tournament lasts 2 days with 3 games guaranteed for every team. “We get a lot of soccer played in a reasonable amount of time,” says Brock. All results are posted on their website (www.vulcancup.com) in a timely fashion so that coaches and parents can check in to see how their teams are faring.

Unlike tournaments that depend on carnival-esque food and entertainment offerings to draw in participants, the Vulcan Cup avoids the smoke and mirrors to offer a forthright purpose for their tournament: “We assume people come to play soccer, ultimately to win. We are a soccer tournament, first and last. We offer great fields, we run on time, we play in any kind of weather. We don’t hand out balloons and toys. It’s a tournament. You get great games and great fields with referees appropriate to your level of play. This is a soccer tournament for soccer players. ”

Admission is selective, however, top-division state champions are assured admission, space permitting. All applications must be submitted by January 25, 2010.