The WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina, is the host of the first The Soccer Tournament, where 32 teams have come together for a chance to win $1 million. Four teams in the tournament have at least one current or former Matao national team player on their rosters, giving the Guam national team some of the best representation in the whole tournament.
Far East United
I’m playing with Far East United, a squad put together by Anton Del Rosario of the Philippines and coached by Matt Holland. Coach Holland has been coaching at the highest levels in Asia for some time now and his understanding of the different players and cultures has been paramount to the squad’s current success.
Shane Malcolm and Jonahan Romero from the Matao are also on the team with me and playing with them, in any capacity, is always a good time. The rest of our squad consists of some big players from Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.
Unfortunately, our teammate Charyl Chappuis from Thailand had some visa issues and he couldn’t attend this year’s edition but hopefully he will be here with us next year. We also have a number of teammates who play professionally in the Major Arena Soccer League, with three of them playing alongside another Matao teammate, Eddie Na, at the Tacoma Stars.
Outstanding facilities
The facilities at the WakeMed complex are outstanding, with two fields set up inside the stadium and another four just outside of the stadium grounds. With multiple games going on at the same time, fans were able to pick and choose which matches they wanted to watch, while mingling with some of the players who were also catching different games to support friends or do some scouting of future opponents.
The whole setup makes for a great vibe among fans and teams alike.
Matches are split into two 20-minute halves and at the end of the 40 minutes, the target score period comes into play. During this time, if one team is winning 4-1, then the target score becomes 5.
This format ensures that every game must end with a goal, and one team can’t just sit back to protect a lead. If the target score isn’t reached within 10 minutes, then both seven-player teams will remove one player from the field, turning it into a six-on-six game. Every five minutes thereafter, another player is pulled from each squad, potentially ending in a one-on-one game, until the target score is reached.
So far, it has made for some really exciting football games.
Group D
In our first match, we were up against West Ham, a famous team from the English Premier League, who brought a mix of some of their current standout academy players along with a group of legends. They have the likes of Anton Ferdinand, Marlon Harewood, Matt Jarvis, Carlton Cole, Luis Boa Morte and Frank Nouble, who all represented the team at the highest level.
With West Ham being one of, if not the most, notable teams of the tournament, we had the honor of playing them on field one inside the stadium with our match being streamed live on Peacock.
The atmosphere at the stadium was outstanding for our first match and the team was excited and ready to showcase what Asian football is all about. Both teams battled back and forth in the first half, but neither was able to create many clear chances heading into the half.
Coming out for the second half, we felt confident that we were starting to put our mark on the match, and our ability and movement off the ball was causing trouble for the Hammers.
It didn’t take too long for us to turn that passing and moving into our first goal.
Tyler John, one of our MASL players, played me a nice pass into the corner and continued his run. I was able to play a one-touch pass back to him that he settled well before finishing neatly at the near post to give us the 1-0 lead. With our confidence buoyed after that initial goal, we really started to open the game up. Next to get on the scoreboard was Felipe Souza. Souza dribbled down the left flank before finding me in the corner.
I settled with my first touch and played a nice pass with my second touch finding a streaking Souza as he continued his run, which he finished well with one touch, putting us up 2-0. Malaysian legend Safee Sali was next to get on the scoreboard. Safee received a pass just past midfield and faced up against West Ham legend Ferdinand. Super Safee dribbled to his left before freezing Ferdinand with a couple of step-overs and finishing cheekily through Ferdinand’s legs with the outside of his right foot, rolling it into the far post.
Unfortunately for us, we gave up a late free kick goal to West Ham, with Harewood getting credit as his direct shot deflected into the near post off our three-man wall, making the score 3-1 going into the target score period.
With a 3-1 lead at the end of the 40 minutes, the target score for our match was 4. After the initial 10 minutes, neither team was able to score and one player was pulled from each side, turning it into a six-on-six match. In the six-on-six, West Ham were able to get a second goal through Morte, who sneaked one in at the back post after a shot looked to go wide, bringing the score to 3-2.
Another five minutes past and another player was pulled from each team, bringing the match to five-on-five. At this point, you could see some of the players' fitness coming into play. After a missed shot by West Ham, our goalkeeper Giovani Rodriguez played a great ball into space off the goal kick for John who had just subbed into the game.
John made a great run down the line before squaring a pass to Bienve Marañon who calmly trapped the ball before taking a touch to his right and finishing down the middle to give us the 4-2 win.
In our second game we lost a closely contested match against Culture By Mo Ali FC 2-0. Culture By Mo scored their first goal on a penalty after one of their players was deemed to have been fouled in the box.
After missing a penalty of our own, as well as a few other close chances, Culture By Mo got the winning goal in the target score period to get the result. That said, we still had it all to play for in our third game against Dallas United; win and we would advance to the knockout rounds.
Racism not tolerated
In the match between West Ham and Dallas United, one of the Dallas players was accused of using a racial slur against West Ham’s Nouble.
With racism being a big topic in the world of football, and with some of their own players having dealt with it in the game before, West Ham decided they weren’t going to finish the match.
In response, TST initiated an investigation and found that Dallas United violated TST’s code of conduct. Dallas United made the decision to withdraw from the competition, leaving us without a third group game to play. While West Ham was able to defeat Culture By Mo FC by a score of 4-3, we advanced to the round of 16 on goal differential.
Round of 16
As group D runners-up we will play the winners of group C, Hapoel Tel Aviv FC, a professional club from Israel. Hopefully we can get the result and move one step closer to winning the $1 million prize.
Fellow Matao players, Alex and Justin Lee, also advanced to the round of 16 with their team the DMV Diplomats. If we both win our match, we will meet each other in the quarterfinals. Former Matao player A.J. DeLaGarza also got through to the round of 16, as his team Zala FFF won big in their last match to get through on goal differential.
The lone Matao player whose team didn’t get through was goalkeeper Dallas Jaye who lost a close final group match to just miss out. Jaye was playing with Nati SC alongside NFL great, Chad Ochocinco.
Each of the Matao players has been playing with Guam on our minds and we hope we can bring some joy to the island after the devastation of Typhoon Mawar. Guam fans can catch the remaining TST matches on Peacock before the quarterfinals onward are covered by ESPN.
