Colorado Rapids to play in the Pan Pacific Championship-esque Hawaii Invitational

The Pan-Pacific Championship - a relatively new football tournament that has featured teams from North America, Japan, Australia, China and Korea - is coming back to the footballing world in 2012 after a few years break, and it will feature the defending MLS Champions the Colorado Rapids as their North American invited side. Although being called the 'Hawaii Invitational', it's pretty much the exact same format as the previous tourney. Also competing in the tournament will be Korean side Incheon United, Australian side Melbourne Heart and Yokohama FC from Japan's second division.

This will be the third ever PPC and the first such championship since 2009. The invited Major League Soccer clubs have finished as the runners-up in both tournaments as the Houston Dynamo lost to J-League side Gamba Osaka 6-1 in 2008 - Los Angeles was also involved in that year's tournament and came in third place - and the Los Angeles Galaxy lost in penalty kicks to the K-League's Suwon Bluewings.

As with former PPC's, it will take place in Hawaii's Aloha Stadium.