Allan Appel Photo
Club Independiente (in white) clashes with LPC in the Ecuadorian soccer final at Rice Field.
Club Independiente prevailed 5 – 4 in penalty kicks in an exciting championship match, as the Ecuadorian soccer league celebrated the end of its fifth and best-attended season yet.
The adult final on Sunday afternoon was an elbows-flying, hard-fought match for players above 18 years old and the culmination of weekend of games for kids in different age ranges organized by the Ecuadorian Community Virgen del Cisne Soccer League.
In the men’s league, Club Independiente beat Liga Paroquial Cuchil, which is named after the town of Cuchil, Ecuador, from which the players hail.
Earlier in the afternoon at the women’s final, EcuaUSA prevailed.
On Sunday Rice Field at the foot of East Rock was thronged not only with players kicking white and lemon-lime colored balls high into the overcast skies, but also with family, friends, and spectators. Double-parked cars lined English Drive from the trailhead up the mountain down to State Street.
From left: Kenny, Cody, Joshua Munoz and league president Elio Cruz.
The President of Virgen del Cisne Elio Cruz estimated that 200 boys and girls participated on 13 teams during the May to October season, up more than 50 kids from last year.
For example, Chicanitos, the team of Kenny Munoz, a 10-year-old who attends Conte West Hills, lost to Tiburones, the boys’ 10- to 12-year-old team. However his brother Joshua scored the first of three goals in a 3 – 0 match as the Chicanitos prevailed in the 7 to 9 year range.
Joshua reported that he launched his goal from the penalty box and it went through the goalie’s legs.
Esperanza Zambrano, who organizes the smaller kids’ teams said of the virtues of futbol: “No PlayStation, no looking at TV. [It’s good] for discipline, for keeping family together.”
The Communidad Virgen del Cisne was organized at St. Rose of Lima Church in Fair Haven in 2005, and the soccer league followed soon thereafter.
Sunday’s games were being streamed live via computer to Ecuador and around the world via eventosimportantes.com.
“Most of these people are immigrants. Their wives, parents can watch them,” Cruz said.
The role of soccer is huge keeping the many immigrant families together and in shape,” he added.
In many instances kids play in different age ranges, and their parents play, as well as coach. It’s all volunteer run, with dozens of parents pitching in arriving early, chalking the field and setting up the goals.
Cruz said that the community is hard pressed to come up with the $8,000 that the city charges to rent Rice Field for practice on the weekend. Because the field is unfenced and open during the week, Cruz pointed out, by the time the Ecuadorians come to practice, the field is beaten up. The Independiente and LPC players kicked up dust as they fought over the ball.
“We need a home field,” Cruz said, one with ample grass so 5‑year-olds like Cody Munoz, Kenny and Joshua’s brother, can play. “We need a field with gates. We can’t be playing on a dirt field.”
Senoritas Deportes Katherine Torres (left) and Maria Magaña with tiara-wearing Senorita Belleza Latina, CT, 2011, Cynthia Roxana Calderon.
He expressed the hope that the city will appreciate how fast the Virgen Del Cisne soccer league is growing.
The Virgen Del Cisne group gained a permit to use the larger fields in the West River Memorial Park on Ella Grasso Boulevard in 2009, when the city was trying to evict the long-running New Haven Men’s Soccer League from playing there.
Virgen Del Cisne agreed to step aside and take less coveted fields as the men’s league fought for—and won back —its original playing turf.
Cruz said Virgen Del Cisne would like a secure gated home field, such as the one the men’s league has on the Boulevard.
“We’re talking, hoping to work with the city. In the future. I’m not pushing,” said Cruz.
As the players high-fived each other after the final, the three visiting beauty queens lined up the trophies to give to the participants. The royalty this year included Cynthia Roxana Calderon (in the tiara), Senorita Belleza Latina, Connecticut 2011; Katherine Torres and Maria Magaña, Senoritas Deportes for the men’s and women’s teams of the league.