American Tour Features Elite Teams Another American summer. Another overseas invasion of muscular European soccer teams that have come trawling for games and greenbacks. Since the turn of the century, the prelude to the season on the other side of the Atlantic has included visits to these shores by teams great and small - for every Barcelona there is also a Derby County or Norwich City taking in the sights. And after years of tours, tournaments and exhibitions, one would think that the summer festival of international soccer would qualify as a book that no one reads anymore. Close, but not quite. The inaugural Guinness International Champions Cup, an eight-team tournament that began Saturday in Valencia, Spain, hits the ground running in the United States on Wednesday - striving for meaning - with marquee teams and players. The teams: Real Madrid, A.C. Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Valencia, Everton, Chelsea and the Los Angeles Galaxy. The players: Cristiano Ronaldo, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Robinho, Andrea Pirlo, Carlos Tévez, Mario Balotelli, Tim Howard, Landon Donovan. The British soccer magazine FourFourTwo recently published its list of the top 100 players in the world; more than 30 are playing in this tournament. The coaches: José Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto Martínez, Bruce Arena. Why, exactly, do they come ... and keep coming back? "The benefit for us has two reasons," said Ancelotti, the current coach of Real Madrid, who brought over Paris St.-Germain last summer, 10 months before winning the French title, in a telephone conference call on Friday. It is important that we improve our conditioning by playing important games against strong teams. And to improve our brand by showing a good image of football. Also for the team to stay together for 10 days in the U.S.A. is a good way to improve the mentality of the team, improve the relationship with each other. And please don't forget that the players love coming to the U.S.A. In a bow to the Europeans" desire for "important games," the Guinness format has been designed as a true tournament. The eight teams were divided into two four-team brackets. The Eastern half includes Valencia and Milan, who play Saturday in Spain; and Chelsea and Inter, who play Wednesday in Indianapolis. The Western half includes Juventus and Everton, who play Tuesday in San Francisco; and Real Madrid and the Galaxy, who play Thursday in Glendale, Ariz. With all teams assured of playing three games, the winners of games in Round 1 go to a winners bracket; the losers to a losers bracket. After the first set of games, there will be two doubleheaders: Aug. 3 at Dodger Stadium (the first soccer games ever played there); and Aug. 4 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. All eight teams will then travel to Miami Gardens, Fla., where SunLife Stadium will be the site of two doubleheaders Aug. 6 for the seventh- and fifth-place matches; and Aug. 7 for the third-place and championship match (between the bracket winners). Several teams in the tournament will also play stand-alone exhibitions: Madrid-Inter in St. Louis on Aug. 10; and Chelsea-Roma in Washington on Aug. 10. "We hope that this tournament dispells a lot of myths," said Charlie Stillitano, the chief executive of Relevant Sports, which organized and is promoting the tournament. The biggest one is that it's not really good for European teams to go to the preseason in America because they're not going to win their leagues. Hey, every coach is looking for an excuse! But in 2009, José brought Real here and he won the treble. Ancelotti won a double after doing a preseason in the U.S. Stillitano (who first was involved in summer internationals with ChampionsWorld, then worked with Major League Soccer while at Creative Artists Agency) added: "We wanted to get away from strictly friendly matches. It's why we created this tournament with an eye on the future with more teams from around the world. Someone once said to Fabio Capello that these games are only friendlies. He said that there's no such thing as a friendly in soccer when you have guys at this level. If you put big teams and big players against each other, the only factor that matters is that no one wants to be embarrassed. The games will be televised in 151 countries around the world, and carried in the United States by Fox Soccer, which will show 11 of the 12 matches spread over the 12-day tournament. The eight clubs in the event have combined to win 120 league titles and 20 Champions League crowns. "It is very good for us to play these type of hard games," Ancelotti said. In one month our season starts, and we have to be ready.