Pan-Pacific Championship

Founded	2007
Region	Asia, North America and Oceania
Number of teams	4
Current champions	Suwon Bluewings (2009)
Most successful club	Gamba Osaka, Suwon Bluewings (1 time)
Website	Official website
Pan-Pacific Championship 2009

The Pan-Pacific Football Championship is an inter-confederation football tournament between teams from A-League (Australia and New Zealand), Chinese Super League (China), J. League (Japan), K-league (Korea), and Major League Soccer (United States and Canada). The event is underwritten by MLS and promoted through its Soccer United Marketing arm.^[1]

Contents 1 History 2 Future plans 3 Trophy 4 Results 5 Statistics 5.1 By club 5.2 By nation 6 References

[edit] History

The inaugural edition of the competition took place from February 20 to February 23, 2008 in Honolulu, Hawaii.^[2] Four teams took part in the competition; Houston Dynamo qualified as MLS Cup champions and Gamba Osaka qualified as champions of the Japanese League Cup.

Australia's A-League was represented by the loser of the minor semi final instead of the champion team. This was due to a scheduling conflict with the A-League Preliminary Final on February 17, followed by the Grand Final on February 24, which were moved back so as not to interfere with Australia's 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign.^[1]

The fourth competitor was originally intended to be the SuperLiga champion, Pachuca, but the club reportedly declined to take part and their place in the competition was awarded to Los Angeles Galaxy. Galaxy were possibly chosen as the SuperLiga runner-up or were simply invited to act as hosts.^[1]

Teams from China and Korea made their debut in the tournament in the 2009 edition.

[edit] Future plans

Future editions are likely to involve a larger number of teams than the four. Football Federation Australia has expressed an interest in hosting the tournament in the near future.^[1]

[edit] Trophy

The trophy was designed by Thomas Lyte of London. The design is a vase shape with six 'arms' that support a ball with a diameter of 4 inches. Overall, the trophy stands at 16 inches tall.

[edit] Results

Year	Host		Final				Third-place match
			Winner	Score	Runner-up		3rd place	Score	4th place
2008	United States		Gamba Osaka	6–1	Houston Dynamo		Los Angeles Galaxy	2–1	Sydney FC
2009	United States		Suwon Bluewings	1–1 (P4-2)	Los Angeles Galaxy		Oita Trinita	2–1	Shandong Luneng

[edit] Statistics

[edit] By club

Team	Won	Runner-up	Years won	Years runner-up
Gamba Osaka	1	0	2009
Suwon Samsung Bluewings F.C.	1	0	2008
Los Angeles Galaxy	0	1		2009
Houston Dynamo	0	1		2008

[edit] By nation

Nation	Times won	Times runner-up	Winning clubs	Runners-up
Japan	1	0	Gamba Osaka (1)
South Korea	1	0	Suwon Samsung Bluewings F.C. (1)
United States	0	2		Houston Dynamo (1), Los Angeles Galaxy (1)

[edit] References

v • d • e Pan-Pacific Championship 2008 · 2009 · 2010

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