Area soccer fans feeling lost in the shuffle of the summer sports scene have a chance to fix that this weekend.

The United States Adult Soccer Association is holding its National Cup Region II Tournament today through Sunday at the Lovers Lane Soccer Complex.

“This is the oldest amateur cup currently in the United States,” said tournament chairman Luis Llontop. “There will be 38 teams involved and it’s probably about the best competition that fans of adult soccer could ask for.

“They come to play; they don’t come to party.”

The original amateur competition began in the U.S. in 1914 with the Men’s Open Cup, and then in 1923 the Men’s Amateur Cup was added. In 1980, the Women’s Amateur cup began. Currently, more than 250 teams nationally compete in the tournament, which now has eight divisions.

Llontop expects between 600 and 700 players - both men and women - to be in Bowling Green this weekend.

The remaining teams are state champions of each division, and are competing for a chance to play for a national championship later this summer.

“This is going to be a high-caliber brand of adult soccer - probably the closest thing to it is semi-pro soccer,” Llontop said. “And to have a chance to see disciplined, well played soccer - which is hard to see around here - is big.”

This weekend’s event - which is free and open to the public - marks the first time a region tournament of this variety will make an appearance in Kentucky. Region II includes teams from 13 states throughout the Midwest and South.

“I worked a lot with (Kentucky Soccer Association president) Peggy Polley to get this here as it’s normally held in Northern states like Ohio or Michigan,” said Llontop, an assistant boys’ soccer coach at Greenwood High School who also played soccer at Western Kentucky University in the 1980s. “I’ve been involved with soccer for a long time and through both of our connections and being involved, we were able to finally get it here.

“It was a hard sell in the past because the infrastructure wasn’t there, but now that we have some of the best fields in the whole state and people willing to help organize, it’s made it easier.”

Llontop said he hopes that by having the tournament here this year - and if all goes well - the door will be open to bringing it back. Beyond that, possibly more soccer-based opportunities could arise.

“We can’t have it here two consecutive years, but we can wait another year after that and try it again,” he said. “If it goes well, we want to try it that following year.

“Response has been very good and a lot of people are pretty excited that they don’t have to travel all the way up to Michigan ... and it’s especially good for the kids to be able to see highly competitive adult soccer like they’ve really never seen before.”

Llontop added that a successful tournament might awaken some of the less-passionate soccer fans in the community. He’s also hopeful that in the future an amateur club could be based in Bowling Green.

“I think it will open the possibility to become more organized and perhaps develop an adult amateur club that can be part of this tournament in the future - or maybe even a team in a semi-pro circuit,” Llontop said. “There’s so many kids around here that play in high school, and now that there’s not a (men’s) team at Western, this could be a place for them to play in the future.”