Super-20 Final Feature
Saturday, July 21, 2012
BRADENTON, Fla. -- Going into the final day of group stage play at the 2012 Super-20 League North American Finals, Alamo SC knew that fate was in their own hands, with a win sending them through to the next stage. To be in such a situation was amazing in itself, as the players displayed a high level of work rate, passion, and teamwork all before a ball was kicked.
A new club formed this year, the team was supported by grants and local funding to offer kids opportunities to further their soccer in the Mid South Division. When they finished top of Group A, the team couldn’t wait to showcase their talents on the national stage at the Finals at IMG Academy. However, a week before the team was set to depart for Bradenton, its funding was cut out of the blue.
The team was used to coping with difficulties - from the beginning of preseason until the end of the regular season, injuries meant that Head Coach Lance Noble never started the same first 11. This, though, was considerably more painful to the players.
With six days to raise $14,000, the players skipped training and instead did everything they could around the city to reach their goal.
“They sat outside restaurants, they collected receipts from restaurants, they had garage sales, everything you could possibly imagine,“ the proud Noble said.“Literally eight to 12 hours a day, it was out begging for money. There was no one big corporate sponsorship that came through.”
“I didn’t think we were going to make it,” conceded Vinicio Guerrero.
Even though they amazingly managed to rally the San Antonio community to help them, the limitations of their travel and living accommodations showed how much the players wanted to compete.
“Finally it came down to each player having to pay $160 to ride the 22 ½ hours,” Noble said. “They paid for their own meals, staying four or five to a room.”
Despite the players being visibly exhausted from their journey, Guerrero and his teammates surprised Orlando City with a hard-fought 3-1 victory in their opening match.
In their next match though, they threw away a 2-1 halftime lead and lost 4-3 in a thrilling encounter with Potomac SC.
“For them to come out and perform the way they did [against Orlando] was unbelievable,” Noble said. “It’s extremely disappointing for them to perform like they did [versus Potomac]. We’re not a team that gives up four goals. But unfortunately we made some very bad mistakes defensively.”
On Saturday Alamo SC finished their tournament with a 3-0 loss against Crew Juniors, the defending champions.
Despite a disappointing end, Noble knows his players accomplished more than most teams.
“The biggest hurdle they [had], they went through.”