THIS weekend promises to be a football feast when the second Clyde Best Invitational Youth Tournament kicks off on Saturday morning and then Major league Soccer's powerhouse side the New England Revolution take on Bermuda's national team on Saturday night ¿ all games being played at the National Sports Centre, writes Kyle Hunter.

For the youth teams coming to Bermuda from the United States, the Best tournament will be a trip of a lifetime while for the Revs, who have Bermuda's Khano Smith in their ranks, the pre-season trip to Bermuda will come as welcome relief from having to train indoors in Boston on account of their freezing winter.

Although Smith had a superb season last year with the Revs, he will not be playing as he is recovering from an injury.

Shaun Bailey, the coach of the Connecticut Olympic Development Programme Under-13 side, said he is looking forward to returning to Bermuda. Bailey also came for last year's inaugural Best tournament and he said: "I thought it was very well run. It was certainly worth coming down there and I was very impressed with the Bermuda youth teams. They seemed very organised, skilled and they always want to attack."

And Mr. Bailey, who hails from England but has been coaching in the US for the past six years, said he always impresses on his players exactly who is Clyde Best after which the tournament is named.

"Of course, I remember him very well. He was a great player in a great team (West Ham). I do let the players know who he is."

Four of Bermuda's national teams will face competition on Saturday and Sunday during the tournament.

Bermuda will be represented by their Under-13 side, the Under-14 team and and two teams in the Under-15 division against Olympic Development Programme teams from Rhode Island, Connecticut as well as the Westchester Football Club in eastern Pennsylvania.

Mr. Best, a Mid-Ocean News Sports columnist, said yesterday he was looking forward to the tournament and seeing what these young kids can do. "One thing I want to emphasis is that with all the negative talk about our (Stanford 20/20) cricket team this week, I do not want people being too harsh on these youngsters.

"They are learning and developing their game ¿ let's give them room to grow. Having said that I think these teams from the US will be very good competition for our players ¿ they will find that overall they will be playing better players than they normally do during the season here."

Bermuda did well at last year's tournament and Mr. Best praised the island's youngsters saying: "I think in the young age groups we can definitely hold our own and stay with anyone.

"I just hope all the kids from Bermuda and the US enjoy themselves. Also we hope they will stay around after their games on Saturday to watch the Revs and Bermuda play. Hopefully, they can pick up some things. It should be a great weekend all around."

The tournament is staged by the Bermuda Football Foundation and the BFF's Richard Calderon said he expects some excellent matches to be played over the weekend.

Mr. Calderon said: "We have managed to secure three Olympic Development Programme teams from Rhode Island and the Connecticut Olympic Development Programme will return again this year with three teams. Additionally, we have secured the Westchester FC Under-15 team out of eastern Pennsylvania. Moreover, to bolster their squad they have included several guest players from one of America's top youth club programmes, FC Delco.

"Bermuda will enter four youth national teams in this year's tournament with two teams entered at the Under-15 age bracket along with one team in the other age brackets."

Mr. Calderon said the BFF's objective of having the tournament has "always been to expose our youth players to a higher level of competition and in particular against American teams".

Mr. Calderon added that the games on Saturday and Sunday will start at 9 a.m. and finish at 7 p.m. and there will be 22 games in all over the two days using all three fields at the National Sports Centre with one game being played at the Police field.