August saw the Dirigo Union once again cement it position in the Portland soccer landscape by field a team in the first ever Forest City Cup. Hosted by local amateur team Old Port FC and Casa Soccer, the competition saw 12 teams compete over 2 days in a 7v7 tournament. The Union was proud to field a team comprised of: Sean Broussard (2), Mike Savage (4), Santi Tijerina (5), Kilson Joao (6), JT Taylor (7), Haga Tela (8), Dunchins Selastino (9), Noah Keneboroud (11), Julian Clements (13), Elijah Fullerton (14), Donald Thibodeau (17), Ben Hutchins as goalkeeper, as well as several other players throughout the tournament. The Dirigo Union would like to thank Kennedy Park Pick-up Soccer for helping us round out our squad.
Group stage matches began Saturday morning with an early match against Amigos United, a futsal team from Franklin, MA wearing red and blue. In the first half Amigos came out strong to score on several occasion as the DU team became acquainted (this being their first match together as a squad). By the second half defenses, on the DU side had shored up significantly and the DU was able score 4 goals while only giving away 1. Final score for the match Amigos 10, DU 5.
After a quick 5-minute turnaround the DU came out for their second match as the day grew hotter against Casaportonin. Goalkeeper Ben Hutchins subbed out in this match for Donald Thibodeau. With communication building between the players and fully warmed up from their prior match, this proved to be the best match for the DU during the competition. Scoring kicked off with a goal from Sean Broussard quickly followed up by Santi Tijerina. MVP of the DU team, Haga Tela scored 5 goals across the 2 halves with other goals provided by J.T. Taylor, Mike Savage, and Julian Clements. The match ended with the DU up by 5 with a final score of 11-6.
Following a long break in play of more than an hour, the DU team faced down their final opponent of the day: Flatley FC of Boston. By this time in afternoon the heat index had passed 90 on the Portland peninsula. While the team played valiantly finish strong the for the day the combination of the heat and the long break before the match slowed down the Union enough to allow Flately several openings. 3 goals were scored during the match by Haga Tela but Flately found the back of the net 9 times in the 40 minutes of play ending the day for the DU in 3rd place within their group out of 4 teams.
With their seeding decided the team paired up against Latinos FC for the first round in the group stages. Playing as a forward, Dunckins Selastino scored the first goal for the DU during the match’s first half despite the team still suffering from the effects of the prior days heat. Unfortunately, the boys in white were unable to overcome that strain and the side fell 6-2 despite fluid goal keeping by Ben Hutchins. All said, however, it was generally felt by the squad and the DU supporters in attendance that throughout the competition the side made a good showing considered this was the first time they had played together and all spoke of a desire to return next year to the Cup’s second iteration.
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