Contenders for The Soccer Tournament’s million-dollar prize down to final eight
And then there were eight.
Forty-eight matches among 32 teams helped sort the bracket, and as the sun set over WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary on Friday, the top 16 teams whittled themselves down to eight in The Soccer Tournament event, a winner-take-all, million-dollar 7-on-7 event.
Newtown Pride of Sandy Hook, Connecticut, was the first team to punch its ticket to the quarterfinals after a surgical dismantling of DMV Diplomats. The Newtown side kept possession for more than 75 percent of the contest, got goals from three different players in regulation, and the winner in target time off the foot of Issak Somow.
Shortly thereafter, on an adjacent field, Far East United and Hapoel Tel Aviv went into target time square at 1-1. With nothing decided in the first 15 minutes of extra time, the teams were down to 4-on-4 play before Hapoel Tel Aviv scored to advance into the quarters.
Given the pedigree of the teams and the way the match played out, perhaps the most entertaining cap of the evening came in the third of eight games, pitting Wrexham Red Dragons and Conrad & Beasley United. The teams battled to a 3-2 score in regulation time before Wrexham evened things up in the first five minutes of target time, creating a next-goal-wins scenario.
With the teams down to 5-on-5 play, Ricard Carvalho beat Wrexham keeper Mark Howard to push his team into the quarterfinals. There, they’ll face Sneaky Fox FC, a 2-1 winner over Duke Sevens, a team of Duke University alumni.
All of the late games Friday — indeed, all but one of the games in the Round of 16 — were decided by a single goal, scored in a tied situation in target time.
Blade & Grass FC overcame a 3-1 deficit in extra time to beat Kingdom FC 4-3, and SLC FC toppled Culture By Mo Ali FC by the same 4-3 score.
In the nightcaps, Como 1907 outlasted Hashtag United, and Zala FFF came back from two goals down in the target time session to shock Raleigh Rebels FC.
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The drama started early in the final session of group play Friday, with the surprising ouster of Hoosier Army, and team made up of University of Indiana alumni.
The Hoosiers went a perfect 2-0 on Day 1 with wins over Borussia Dortmund and Kingdom FC, but they didn’t win those games by enough to overcome a loss Thursday morning to Newtown Pride FC.
That result, combined with a resounding Kingdom FC win over Dortmund, left all three teams tied at 2-1 in the Group A table. Newtown, with a plus-9 differential, won the group, and Kingdom FC placed second with a plus-6.
The drama didn’t stop there. In the final matches for Group D, West Ham — which walked off the pitch during a match with Dallas United following allegation of a racial slur — held off Culture By Mo Ali FC in the target time session to earn its first and only win. Because Dallas United withdrew from the tournament, though, both Culture and Far East United finished with two wins, the latter due to Dallas’ forfeit, giving them six points each to West Ham’s three. Culture By Mo Ali FC won the group by virtue of goal differential.
Other group winners in Friday’s early session included Blade & Grass FC, Hapoel Tel Aviv FC, Wrexham, Hashtag United, Sneaky Fox and Raleigh Rebels FC.
This story was originally published June 3, 2023 at 12:06 AM with the headline "Contenders for The Soccer Tournament’s million-dollar prize down to final eight."
