Onkyo Sponsoring Soccer Championship

By TWICE Staff -- TWICE, 2/7/2008

Upper Saddle River, N.J. — Onkyo will sponsor the inaugural Pan Pacific Championship professional soccer tournament between teams from the United States, Japan and Australia.

Other sponsors of the February event in Honolulu, Hawaii, are Japan Air Lines, Hilton Hotels, Yamazaki-Nabisco and MLJ, an international communications company.

The event will include the participation of clubs from the Asian and North American confederations — MLS Cup champion Houston Dynamo, Yamazaki Nabisco Cup champion Gamba Osaka (J League), SuperLiga finalists Los Angeles Galaxy and a team from Australia’s Hyundai A-League Final Series.

The single elimination tournament will kick off with a semifinal doubleheader on Wednesday, Feb. 20, with the Los Angeles Galaxy taking on Gamba Osaka in the opener, followed by the match between the Houston Dynamo and the A-League representative. The two winners will compete for the Pan-Pacific Championship on Saturday, Feb. 23, preceded by the third-place match. The week-long event will also consist of festivities organized by Major League Soccer for the Hawaii youth soccer community.

Ken Araki, president of Onkyo USA, said his Japanese company has deep ties in the United States and Australia and that “there is nothing like a little world-class soccer to add some excitement to the relationship.”