Dallas Cup and Dallas Cup Girls’ Invitational officially kickoff 2022 events

DALLAS, Texas – The 2022 Dallas Cup and Dallas Cup Girls’ Invitational are officially underway with competition taking place throughout the Greater Dallas area.

The marquee event for Opening Sunday took place at the historic Cotton Bowl Stadium, featuring a triple-header of tournament games and the Dallas Cup’s Opening Ceremonies and “Welcome World” Parade of Nations.

The 12:30pm match was a 17-Under clash between Germany’s Eintracht Frankfurt and FC Dallas Premier in the Dallas Cup Girls’ Invitational. In what was the first Girls’ Invitational game to ever be played at the Cotton Bowl, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Sarah Preuß was the star of the game. Preuß scored the first two goals of the match for the German side in the 37th and 65th minute, respectively.

FC Dallas’ Grayson Fox pulled a goal back in the 74th minute to make the match 2-1, but in stoppage time Preuß was at it again. After breaking through the defense, she chipped the keeper from just inside the box, securing her hat-trick and a 3-1 win for the German side.

At 3:00pm, the two-time defending Super Group champions Tigres squared off against FC Dallas in the Boys’ 19U Gordon Jago Super Group. The Mexican side got on the board first when Leonardo Flores connected on a header to make the match 1-0. FC Dallas would answer in the 37th minute thanks to Alejandro Araneda, who collected a loose ball in the box and slotted it by the Tigres keeper.

Shortly into the second half, Tigres’ Rodrigo Ramos scored an early “goal of the tournament” contender with a first-touch strike from outside the box. In the 55th minute, Luis Reyna padded the lead for the Liga MX side, scoring from the penalty spot. The final whistle blew with a final score of 3-2 as Tigres picked up their first three points in Bracket A of the Super Group.

At 5:00pm, the Opening Ceremonies and “Parade of Nations” took place at the Cotton Bowl, featuring the 5,500+ participating athletes, representing 14 countries. Between players and referees, more than 30 countries are represented in 2022, marking a great return to international competition for the first time since 2019.

The director of the US Men’s National Deaf Team, Trip Neil, was the opening ceremony’s Guest of Honor. Dallas Cup was proud to welcome Trip and the Deaf National Team to the Cotton Bowl for a friendly match against local side Texas Spurs this morning at 10:00am.

The last match of the day was a showdown between the El Salvador National Team and Mexico’s CF Monterrey. Despite playing a man down for much of the first half, Rayados played stout defense and kept the match scoreless going into the break.

In the second half, both sides showed the ability to be strong with the ball and string passes together, but in the end, the go ahead goal was not there for either side. The match ended in a 0-0 draw with both teams notching a point in the Group B Gordon Jago Super Group standings.

Additional games were played throughout the day at MoneyGram Soccer Park, the Classic League Complex at Richland College, and the Toyota Soccer Center. The 2022 Dallas Cup will run through April 17, featuring Boys’ 12U divisions up to the 19U Gordon Jago Super Group.

The Dallas Cup Girls’ Invitational finals and the Super Group semifinals will be played on Friday, April 15 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, which will also host boys’ championship matches of the U13-U19 age groups on Saturday, April 16 and Sunday, April 17.