Gustavo Contreras was the littlest player out there. The fearless, 7‑year-old medio, or midfielder, had a simple strategy: “I’m going to score a goal.”
Although he didn’t, his team, Cruz Azul (Blue Cross) prevailed over the Cachorros, or Little Tigers, in a championship game in Criscuolo Park on Saturday.
The game capped a season that saw New Haven’s Ecuadorian-led Latino soccer league, like New Haven’s Ecuadorian community, growing and bringing new energy to Fair Haven.
Virgen del Cisne (which also has built an impressive 19-team adult soccer league) has fielded six teams of 7‑to-twelve year olds since the summer in its youth soccer league.
Members of Cruz Azul, who previously had been beaten two to one by the Cachorros in regular-league play, put on their game faces to get some revenge in Saturday’s championship.
Portero, or goalie Jacob Cotto (with the ball), high-fived Contreras. “We plan to score early,” he declared, “and to keep it like that because they beat us last time.”
Kevin Mendieta, who goes to the John C. Daniels School, had other ideas.
Mendieta is the lithe, cat-like goalie for the Cachorros. Defender Misael Bernavi, who goes to the Truman School, had other ideas.
In the first of two 25-minute halves the boys played on a 50-yard field beneath a brilliant sun reflecting off the bright blue water of the Quinnipiac, it was all Cachorros. The Baby Tigers applied pressure on the right wing, then the left. When Contreras, controlling up the middle, had the Cachorros defense collapse on him, David Garcia called out “Pasa me el balon, pasa!“ When Contreras did, Garcia popped it by Mendieta, and it was one zero, Cachorros.
Emboldened, Cruz Azul pressed again. “Ayuda, ayuda!” called Mendieta. But this time Mendieta helped himself; he made two brilliant saves, including one in which he extended vertically and at the last second punched the ball just up and over the top of the net.
In subsequent action, Miguel Munoz, Jr., a tall defender, gave him repeated help on the left. “Via, amigo, via,” Mendieta said. “Great going, Miguel.”
Still, the Cachorros kept coming.
“Juega serrado,” called out Beatrice Melendez, from the sidelines. “Play closer.” Her son, Rafael, at age 13, is a veteran of three years with the Virgen league, but is just a year too old to play.
But this mom knows soccer. “When they are spread out, they get pushed back,” she elaborated on the strategy she offered from the sidelines.
“Mostly,” she added, “the boys like it when I scream.”
She turned out to be right: In the next instant, Mendieta was back on his heels again. The big scorer for Cruz Azul, Ernesto Leon, struck the ball off his left foot. (He can use left or right.) The ball spun past a diving Mendieta into the right side of the net. Two to zero.
In the second half Juan Tenjay replaced Cotto at goalie. He sacrificed his shins for the team (he was OK) in a dive in front of the box. The Cachorros put some pressure on Cruz Azul, but could not make up the deficit. With a minute to go, Cotto, who had come back in for Tenjay, touched the ball out of the box triggering a tiro libre, or free kick.
It was a dramatic moment — especially for some of the moms on the sidelines who didn’t want to look,. The hard-playing Cruz Azul formed a barrera, a wall. Then one of the Cachorros’ strikers took a shot to get his team at least on the board.
But it went wide. The whistle blew, and the game was over.
There were fine feelings all around, trophies for both of the equipos, or teams, and individual trophies. The only girl on the field, Luz Maria Jimenez, who’s 9 and goes to Clinton, was particularly proud of her trophy. She played well as a left side defender in the second half.
Dixon Jimenez (pictured with Kevin Mendieta, who said his guys should have pushed harder up field), the secretary of Virgen del Cisne, passed out ball-shaped Dunkin Donuts and then tiny, squeezable soccer balls to everyone, including a reporter.
“Take one,” he urged. “It’s good for the tension.”
Jimenez said that while teams have been around for the last several years, this was the first formal championship event. Later in the afternoon adult women would play, and then the men. Saturday evening, at the Annex Club on Forbes Avenue, the noche de campeones, or night of champions banquet was planned.
Jimenez said that although the Ecuadorian community is the umbrella organizer for the league, at least half a dozen countries are represented on the kids’ teams — and absolutely any kid can play, Latino or not. The adult teams play by countries. The parents and several padrinos (godfathers) of the kids’ teams provide the equipment, uniforms and modest dues. The aim is family-building through sports. Working through the parks department, as well, a portion of the funds collected, said Jimenez, is being given this year as the community’s contribution to the American Cancer Society.