Elm City Express Gets On The Train

For the third time in 16 minutes, Elm City Express was gaining on the New Jersey-based TSF FC​‘s goal. Anthony Assante extended his left leg and kicked, giving the ball a solid spin. TSF goalie Mateo Zabala watched it carefully. With a thump, the ball fell squarely into his gloved hands. 

From the bleachers, a growing crowd let loose a collective groan. Then it rallied, and started cheering as team members resumed their places on the field.

So began the latest game for the Elm City Express, New Haven’s new pro-soccer team. Six games into its first season, the team headed this past Friday night to Yale’s Reese Stadium, where it plays when it is hosting on its home turf. (So far, only two of the season’s games have been at home.) As part of the National Premier Soccer League, it found itself facing off against TSF FC. Previous matches have included the New York Cosmos, Hartford City FC, and Brooklyn Italians. 

The Elm City Express’s 28-member squad hails from 14 different countries. Its inaugural season is marked by partnerships with the Connecticut Food Bank and Elm City Internationals, a mentorship nonprofit that uses soccer as a teaching tool for city and immigrant kids.

Friday, that collaborative spirit kicked off the game as Elm City Express members took the field hand in hand with kids from the Newtown Youth Soccer Club, who Elm City Express President Zack Henry had invited to the game. ​“We try to have that community at each game,” he said later in the evening.

Meanwhile, attendees began to flood the bleachers, lining up to pay the $10 ticket prices before hustling up ramps and concrete stairs into the stadium seating. One of them, self-declared ​“super fan” James Cramer, sidled up next to his brother Matt and mom Patricia before donning a blue helmet and unfurling a homemade flag that read ​“New Haven Dispatchers Union.” As blue-clad players buzzed down the field, Cramer stood and began to walk along the front of the bleachers.

“Get on the train, and ride it!” he half-sang. The crowd clapped back in unison, some members stomping their feet. 

Back on the field, midfielder Daniel Oliveira whisked the ball away from TSF FC members who surrounded him. He passed it to a fellow player down the field. As it flew toward the goal, Zabala dove for it. He made the catch.

The burgeoning crowd followed the action, many members gesticulating wildly. Watching the ball sail further back to the field, Zabala made a quick gesture, hands hitting his hips in unison as he yelled at fellow team members in Spanish (this reporter was too far from the goal to hear what he said).

Closer to the field, a handful of fans heckled Zabala, urging him to ​“speak English” and ​“go to where he came from” as they unfurled a New Haven railroad flag and shared bottles of beer. Zabala didn’t acknowledge them. Back in the bleachers, Cramer and his fellow seat members praised his skills as goalkeeper, agreeing that Elm City would have landed more shots without him. What had started as a crowd of maybe 50 at 7 p.m. now numbered in the hundreds.

The clock buzzed to signal halftime. The score was still zero-zero. As Elm City members brought it in for a huddle, kids from Elm City Internationals played a mini-soccer game on the sides of the field.

Then halftime was over. In the bleachers, friends Ann Farrier, Maureen Spellman, and Spellman’s kids Pheedra and Dimitrius got back in their seats and looked to the field, where former Southern Connecticut State University classmate Sean O’Brien was jogging on to play midfield.

“Go uncle Sean!” they cried, pulling out ​“uncle” as a term of endearment. ​“Get it, uncle Sean!” 

O’Brien and other members did get it: Elm City Express landed a goal, with Shaquille Saunchez delivering a powerful, fast kick that was finally too much for TSF FC. Members of the crowd went wild. Cramer marched around the bleachers with his sign. Where he had been sitting at the beginning of the game, friends Mohammad Traure and Morlken Sandary cheered the players on in French flecked with Liberian and Guinean slang. At 90 minutes, a buzzer sounded; Elm City Express had taken the game.

Midfielder Ibrahima ​“Kalou” Keita jogged over to the stands, where Latif Cisse was holding little Moussa and motioning for him to come over. Cisse fired off a string of praise for Keita, rocking Moussa back and forth as he spoke.

“Merci, merci beaucoup,” said Keita.

For Elm City Express’s schedule, check out the team’s website. Its next home game has been changed to Saturday, June 17, at 8:30 p.m. For a video snapshot of the game with highlights, click here.