It'll take time for international soccer to catch on in Chicago

You can tell a lot about a person by reading his T-shirt.

With the simplest piece of apparel, a person can declare his allegiances, his hobbies, his fears or his dreams.

I love reading T-shirts. It's often entertaining, usually interesting and only occasionally annoying.

I especially enjoy seeing someone in a T-shirt I might wear. Something from a Jimmy Buffett concert, for instance. I get a charge seeing a T-shirt that came from one of my favorite vacation spots, and I get a twinge of jealousy if the T-shirt is from some place I have never been.

I bring all of this up because I spent much of Friday and Sunday reading T-shirts at Soldier Field during the Chicago Trophy, the four-team international club soccer tournament.

Walking through the concourse, I tried to gauge the support for each of the teams by reading clothing. I saw every manner of red shirt in support of Wisla Krakow, the team from Poland, and many different shirts in support of Mexican League teams, including some for the team in attendance, CD Toluca.

(What that guy in the Boston Bruins shirt was doing there, I'm not sure).

The international nature of the tournament, which also included teams from Spain and Italy, combined with the terrific level of soccer, created a pleasant atmosphere.

The crowds weren't as large as I expected, but with 34,000 during the two- day event, it almost matched the total tournament organizers had in mind.

I don't understand why passionate soccer fans here don't support events such as this. You want to be taken seriously by Americans who belittle your sport, but failing to produce 20,000 either night for two games between terrific club teams makes me wonder whether that passion will ever be translated into impressive attendance at anything other than national team events.

Tournament officials consider the event a success, but it certainly wasn't one from a bottom-line perspective.

They ended up giving away almost half their tickets to get some seats in the seats.

Eamon McLoughlin, the face of the tourney's sponsor, explained that with a three-year commitment, its success will occur in years to come.

"Like any startup business, there is an investment involved,'' McLoughlin said. "We are happy with that investment, and it is upward and onward from here."

McLoughlin said the goal is to host a tournament that would bring in 30,000-40,000 a night, which is why it was not held at Toyota Park. The plan is to establish Soldier Field as its regular site.

The goal of tournament owners, who hail from Ireland, is to create the best single-site international club tourney in the United States.

It is revealing that the Copa PanAmericana tournament last week at the University of Phoenix Stadium hosted only "a few hundred'' fans to the first night games between Boca Juniors, Alianza Lima of Peru, Cruz Azul of Mexico and Colombia's Deportivo Cali, according to the Arizona Republic.

Obviously, attracting soccer fans to games in which there is no allegiance is a tricky business. But, to be honest, I had a great time at the tournament -- and I hope I wasn't alone.