The Clyde Best tournament kicks off this weekend with several teams from the US arriving on the island to compete for bragging rights against Bermuda's best in their respective age brackets.

Teams coming from Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Rhode Island will compete in Under 13 through to Under 15 age groups against Bermuda's youth national teams.

Games start at 9 a.m. on Saturday, and run through to Sunday with all but one of the 22 of the games to be played at the National Sports Centre. The lone match not to be played at this venue will be the opening Under 13 game between Bermuda and the Connecticut ODP team, which will be played at the Police Recreation Club.

Bermuda's Under 13s and Under 14s are the defending champions of their age groups while Connecticut are not returning to defend their Under 15 title so all teams involved, including two Bermuda sides, can stake their claim for the prize.

Speaking on his sides preparations and expectations, Under 15 coach Mark Wade said: "Myself and Ray Jones have the privilege of taking on this task. We have added quite a few players from last year's champion Under 14 team, which has bolstered our training squad to roughly 39 players.

"We are making preparations for the upcoming Under 17 World Cup Qualifiers, so it is only fair we take a look at all the players. We have two teams, a Bermuda red and blue, so we will run our eyes over all of them and hopefully one of the teams can bring this trophy back to the island.

"We are a little disappointed that some of the teams that we hoped to come aren't, like the defending champions, but we will still take this event very serious", he said. "It is a tournament that is named after one of our national footballing heroes, so we will go into the event with a professional attitude, but there is no pressure on us.

"Our squad has been training twice a day this week and we are satisfied with their work ethic. It should be a highly entertaining two days, and we hope the island will come out and support our next generation of footballers."

Tournament organiser and Bermuda Football Foundation (BFF) founding member, Clyde Best said this year's youth spectacle promised to be better than last year's inaugural event.

" We are looking forward to this year's as this event is for the youth to showcase their talents and we are just hoping Bermuda will come out and support them," he said.

Accommodations for the teams were taken care of by the Bermuda Football Association (BFA), which will have six of the seven US teams staying at the Southampton Princess and the eighth US team along with the four local national teams will stay at the Grotto Bay Resort.

For a complete schedule of times and fixtures, go to the tournament website at www.elitetournaments.com.