The 40th Anniversary of the world-renowned Dr. Pepper Dallas Cup was a veritable global celebration of top-level international competition and cultural diversity and unity. Hosting clubs from all reaches of the globe, this year’s event was nothing short of spectacular, with an announced crowd of nearly 39,000 people in attendance at the world-famous Cotton Bowl inauguration ceremonies.

Our group, consisting of a top-level selection of quality sides, included: Everton FC of England, Botafogo FC of Brasil (Golden State FC), Dallas Texans FC and our own FUTSOC ENIGMA.

Departing Fort Lauderdale due to weather delays and arriving in Dallas, Texas – after massive flight delays due to extreme weather conditions present in the Dallas area (lightning, thunderstorms, hail and tornados), our flight was diverted to Houston, where we further experienced another three and one half hour delays on-board the aircraft and then deboarding to the terminal. A flight that should have reached its destination at 10:45 am, ended up arriving at 5:30 pm!!

Opening day, our first opponent was the internationally renowned side – Everton FC of England. A very difficult match compounded by the previous travel complications, resulted in a sluggish end to a strong first half performance. Allowing a goal in the 21st minute of the first half, giving our respected opponent an early 0::1 lead, our boys dominated play through most of the period. Opening the 2nd half down a goal, our boys came out very spirited and once again dominated play early on, only to commit a very uncommon mistake making a poor clear which was collected by the waiting winger, who aptly fired into our net – a 0::2 lead at that point. On the final score, Everton FC caught our defensive line resting up high and having the ball barely clear over top to the finely timed run by the opposing striker and thus taking a 0::3 lead at that point, which would stand to the very end. Overall a disappointing result for an opening match, despite a 60/40 dominance by our squad and many scoring opportunities.

In Game No. 2, the vaunted Golden State FC (Botafogo FC of Brasil) awaited. A three-time national champion of the USYSA National Cup and two-time Dallas Cup Champion U19 of the last three editions awaited. Having won their opener by a score of 9::0 against a solid Dallas Texans, a titanic battle awaited. Two years earlier, our ENIGMA boys upset the defending national champions 0::2 in a much-heralded match, which derailed their Dallas Cup and USYSA National Championship aspirations. This time, the task at hand was not any easier, but our boys were most definitely up for the challenge. After holding against a constant barrage of wave after wave of surgical attacks and keeping the fine opponent scoreless, we began domination of the mid sector of the field and imposing our challenges to their defense…arriving to their goal area with greater frequency! The first half concluded with a fair 0::0 result as both teams were attempting to seek out each team’s weaknesses. In the second half, our team thrust forward and took the match to the powerful opponent and created many opportunities and shot after shot. In the 75th minute our most penetrating attack, resulted in a powerful strike that bounced off their crossbar and initiated their immediate counterattack, which resulted in the only score of the match, a lead that they would hold to the very end and a 0::1.

Our final match was played under very extreme wind conditions at the pristine MoneyGram Park, against Dallas Texans. At this point a meaningless match in terms of qualification to next round play, the game was most uninspiring and was entirely dominated by our squad. Wave after wave of attacks, three crossbars and two posts, as well as six passes in front of the goal mouth, which were overrun time after time due to the present weather patterns, resulted in a final 0::0.

Eliminated from group play, our next challenges were two matches against other eliminated squads (the “Dallas Cup Way”). The first match against a very talented and highly nationally ranked club from California – Corona FC. The match was very intense as we played to our very best-level to date at the event, taking a comfortable 3::0 lead. – at which time we started rotating all our substitutes and giving all ample opportunity to play against top level competition. It was a very solid performance coming off the heels of the wind affected match a day earlier.

Unable to find another suitable time to schedule another friendly – once again due to the incessant rescheduling resulting from weather conditions affecting the tournament, we decided to play back to back matches and thus added Gateway FC (another Brasilian squad) as our final opponent. Our boys, already tired from playing three consecutive matches in two days (two matches back to back within four hours), came out with renewed energy and basically dominated play throughout the match, only to succumb to the fine opponent by the score of 1::2! A very gutsy performance to have played back to back 90-minute matches within a five-hour span!

In the end, we played five (5) top level matches against some of the best competition internationally – teams from England, Mexico, Brasil and the U.S. The results were qualitatively excellent, and we lost to the 2019 Dallas Cup U19 Champions by the minimal score of 0::1 in what was their closest and most difficult match of the entire event. New friendships were forged, cultural exchanges were most prominent and unforgettable memories were established for a lifetime! Lastly, one of the absolute greatest factors benefiting attendance at this yearly global showcase, is the identification and evaluation of players by myriad coaches and technical directors from all over the world. To this end, FUTSOC ENIGMA once again had players selected for potential scholarships to colleges in the U.S. – six players were identified and are currently in process to decide on their futures in soccer at the collegiate level.

Congratulations on a great 2019 Dallas Cup!!