Chula Vista FC and Pomona’s San Nicolas FC were playing for more than just pride in last Saturday’s Cal South Adult State Cup Finals at Cal State Fullerton’s Titan Stadium.
The teams were also playing for $7,500 in prize money that went to the winning team.
Chula Vista FC, the little team with big aspirations, made headlines once again with a hard fought 2-1 victory to earn the lucrative pay day and a trip to the upcoming regional championship tournament.
Chula Vista FC, Region IV champions in 2014 and 2015, scored goals in the 21st and 71st minutes to prevail in the championship game. The latter goal, a rising blast from the edge of the 18-yard box that caught the netting in the upper far corner, snapped a 1-1 tie after San Nicolas had scored in the 60th minute.
Alberto Diaz scored both goals while Kentaro Matsuura earned accolades as the winning goalkeeper.
Diaz, a graduate of Bonita Vista High School, has a prestigious background that includes a stint with the U.S. national U15 team and honors as the Cal South Youth Player of the Year in 2011 and Cal South Adult Player of the Year in 2015.
Matsuura, a native of Fukuoka, Japan, traveled 6,100 miles to don goalkeeper gloves for Southwestern College’s men’s soccer team last fall.
It’s obviously a happy time for the local soccer club.
The latest championship builds on a string of recent successes that landed the team in the national championship tournament in both 2014 and 2015.
“It’s a reminder that what we’re doing is successful,” explained Hector Diaz, who serves as the head coach for Chula Vista FC’s men’s adult team and also as technical director for the club’s youth program.
“All the guys have made sacrifices to play for the team, and that helps inspire the younger players. We have a lot of youth players who have gone on to play for the adult team.”
Indeed, Chula Vista FC does not stop at the U19 level. It remains a club for life.
A large part of the 2018 Adult State Cup championship team is gathered from local talent. High schools represented on Chula Vista FC roster include Bonita Vista, Southwest, Sweetwater, Eastlake, Castle Park, Chula Vista, San Ysidro, San Diego, Granite Hills, Patrick Henry, Lincoln, Ohori (Japan) and Preparatoria Jose Vasconcelos and Instituto Siervo de la Nacion in Mexico.
“The core group of our men’s team are 1994 players who played together and won four state cup championships at the youth level and who have stayed together,” the Chula Vista FC coach explained.
“It’s this consistency and sense of family that have brought us a lot of success. There’s a strong soccer culture in the South Bay.”
Those State Cup titles came at the U9, U10, U15 and U19 levels. The U15 teams advanced to the regionals in Lancaster while the U19 team advanced to compete in the regionals in Hawaii.
The next step for the newly crowned Cal South Adult State Cup champions is a berth in the upcoming regional tournament. The dates and site are to be announced at a future date.
Chula Vista FC will compete in the Region IV tournament that will feature both Adult State Cup finalists — Chula Vista FC and San Nicolas FC — as well as state champions from Arizona and Colorado.
Qualifiers from the four regional tournaments advance to the national championship tournament. Chula Vista FC advanced to the national tournament in 2014 (Utah) and 2015 (Virginia).
The locals fell short in the semifinals at each national tournament.
Chula Vista FC defeated the CaliGators, 6-3, in a matchup of SoCal Premier League sides in the Cal South Adult State Cup tournament semifinals on April 14 at Silverlakes Sports Park in Norco.
Both Chula Vista FC pulled upset wins over United Premier Soccer League clubs in the quarterfinals on April 7 as Chula Vista FC edged the Santa Ana Winds, 5-4, in Norco and the Gators slipped past the L.A. Wolves 3-2.
In the other two quarterfinal matches, Lionside FC shut out the Real Sociedad Royals, 2-0, while San Nicolas FC defeated Buena Park FC.
The Gators recorded a 1-0 win over Lionside FC to capture the third place match at last weekend’s finals at Cal State Fullerton to earn $2,500 in prize money.
Youth Soccer
Chula Vista FC’s men’s adult team is at the top of the club’s soccer pyramid that starts with a youth foundation.
There are a lot of good things happening at the bottom of the club’s soccer pyramid as well.
An example: Chula Vista FC’s Boys 2004 team competed in the prestigious Dallas Cup in March, recording a victory over the Richmond Strikers 04, Virginia’s fourth-ranked team.
Five players from that team — Francisco Castrejon Barrientos, Gerardo Huera Penalosa, Marvin Ramirez, Rodrigo Rodriguez and Jesus Emiliano Sanchez — were subsequently invited to participate in a residential camp conducted by national team training staff at the Chula Vista Elite Training Center.
The Chula Vista FC B2004 team was one of three from Southern California invited to participate in the Dallas Cup. The team finished 1-2 in pool play, losing to the Dallas Texans and Japan’s Kashiwa Club Dragons in group play.
The Chula Vista side lost, 1-0, to the Japanese team.
“If we could have won that game, we could have advanced out of group play,” Hector Diaz noted.
Could this 2004 birth year group be another championship team in the making?
CHULA VISTA FC TEAM ROSTER
- Manuel Carillo (Patrick Henry High School)
- Joan Jasiel Colunga (Lincoln High School)
- Alberto Diaz (Bonita Vista High School)
- Luis Espinoza (Southwest High School)
- Jorge Gome (Sweetwater High School)
- Angel Gonzalez (Eastlake High School)
- Oscar Hernandez (Eastlake High School)
- Alejandro Lopez (Preparatoria José Vasconcelos)
- Kentaro Matsuura (Ohori High School)
- Luis E. Milan (San Ysidro High School)
- Juan M. Pere (San Diego High School)
- Gilberto Perez-Lopez (Granite Hills High School)
- Angel Pinal (Castle Park High School)
- Francisco Ramirez (Southwest High School)
- Mario Rubio (Lincoln High School)
- Christopher Varga (Chula Vista High School)
- Abdiel Verdin (Southwest High School)
- Sergio Zamudio (Instituto Siervo De La Nacion)
CHULA VISTA FC: THE NEXT LEVEL
- Manuel Carillo (1994): California State University-Bakersfield
- David Miguel (1995): Purdue University Calumet
- Alberto Diaz (1994): U.S. Youth National Team BU15
- Francisco Ramirez (1994): U.S. Youth National Team BU17
- Luis Alvarado (1993): San Diego State University
- Richard Damian (1994): U.S. Youth National Team BU17
- Jimmy Estrada (1994): San Diego State University
- Rodrigo Fuentes (1993): University of Nevada-Las Vegas
- Jaime Verdin (1994): C.P. Parla Escuel (Spanish Tercera División)
- Julio Castillo (1992): Northwest Nazarene University
- Alejandro Guido (1994): Tijuana Xolos
- Takuya Okada (1994): Holstein Kiel (German Second Division)
- Alex Guillen-Torres: Las Vegas Lights FC (USL Professional Division II)
- Angel Gonzalez (1992): Chivas USA
- Oscar Hernandez (1996): Las Vegas Lights FC
- Alejandro Lopez (1992): CF Correcaminos (Mexican Tercera División)
- Juan M. Pere (1985): FC Tatabánya (Hungarian First Division)
- Sergio Zamudio (1995: Morelia Monarcas (Mexican Tercera División)
STILL GETTING THEIR KICKS
Last weekend’s Cal South Adult State Cup championship match pitted teams from the SoCal Premier League (Chula Vista FC) and United Premier Soccer League (San Nicolas FC).
The SoCal Premier League is an amateur men’s soccer league in California affiliated the United States Adult Soccer Association. The league has promotion and relegation between three tiers: Premier, Major and First divisions.
The U.S. Adult Soccer Association is a national organization for amateur soccer in the United States, consisting of 55 state organizations as well as national, regional and state leagues.
The American Soccer League, National Premier Soccer League, Premier Development League and the United Premier Soccer League are national affiliates of the U.S Adult Soccer Association.
San Nicolas FC competes in the UPSL, an adult amateur soccer league with teams in regionalized conferences throughout the continental United States. The league is a national affiliate of the U.S. Adult Soccer Association.
The NPSL is commonly recognized as being a fourth division tier league, though it has been given no official designation by US Soccer.
ASC San Diego, which plays its home games at Mission Bay High School, is a member of the NPSL’s Southwest Conference. Other conference members are based in Riverside, Whittier, Lake Forest, Oxnard, Temecula and Mesa, Ariz.
ASC San Diego, which kicked off its season on March 10, is currently at the top of the Southwest Conference table with a 4-1-1 record. The team hosts the L.A. Wolves in an exhibition game on Saturday, May 5, at 6 p.m.
ASC San Diego hosts Chula Vista FC in another exhibition game on May 25, also at 6 p.m.
Regular season play continues through June 16 when ASC San Diego hosts Temecula FC.
Chula Vista FC will kick off play in the SoCal Premier League in late May. Games continue through July.
The team’s home playing site is located in Spring Valley.
The SoCal Premier League is a rebranding of the former Coast Soccer League.
Chula Vista FC will begin qualifying for the next U.S. Open Cup later this fall. The team advanced to the third round of play in the current competition, losing 4-1 to La Maquina FC at the Chula Vista Elite Training Center, last November.
