COMMERCE CITY — As freezing rain fell sideways onto Field No. 8 in the shadow of Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Azteca FC players arrived at the pitch having already endured full days.
Some came from long restaurant shifts, others came from demanding construction jobs. The team captain is currently in the middle of his family accounting firm’s busy season. Even the head coach, Hernan Molina, moved from Argentina to the U.S. five years ago and works at a truck wash company.
Yet every one of them, to a man, showed few signs of fatigue as their faces turned rosy and their hands shook amid a tough-love 8 p.m. training session ahead of next week’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup match against Tulsa Athletic.
This is their night shift, their passion: Playing for the finest amateur men’s soccer team in Colorado.
“I work in construction, but to me, no matter how hard a day is at work or how bad the weather is when you are here and practice as a team, this means everything,” Azteca FC owner Andy De La Rosa said as he looked up at the sleet and let out a chuckle. “Man, you don’t think about what else may be going on in your life. This is what it’s all about.”
Once players put on their white “AZTECA” jerseys, job titles dissipate, strenuous days fade and all that’s left is the rhythm of the game. The entrance to an 18,000-seat stadium they want to play in is tantalizingly close.
It’s an irony that isn’t lost an anybody, including team captain Eduardo Reza, a former Division I player at Lipscomb University in Nashville.
“What I’ve noticed is, we’re having the most fun (playing) soccer, and it always goes a lot better when you have fun,” said Reza, who makes the trek from Wheat Ridge during the height of tax season to extend his soccer career. “This team shows determination. We have a lot of young guys who come in the fall, show up in single-degree weather, low double-digits, rain or snow, you name it.”
Azteca FC has been around since 2005 and entered Open Cup qualifying every year since 2012. This week it will make its third appearance in the tournament after reaching the first round proper in 2017 and ’18.
The U.S. Open Cup stands as the United States national soccer championship and is one of the longest-running events of its kind in the world, dating back to 1914.
Unlike March Madness, this tournament includes teams from every division of soccer. Think of it as the NCAA holding one tournament for Division I-III teams, with the top junior colleges thrown in, too, and more than 100 teams in the bracket by the time the first round begins. That’s the Open Cup.
Azteca, who compete in what would be considered the sixth-tier of the American soccer system, beat three high-quality Colorado amateur teams to set up its match with fourth-division side Tulsa Athletic. Azteca is one of just 12 amateur teams left standing around the country. Memorable underdogs make a name for themselves by pulling off giant upsets and Azteca is hoping for one of its own. The club is two wins away from potentially drawing an MLS team in the third round.
The MLS matchup is rare, but the “Magic of the Cup” makes teams believe. The other side of the coin, though, is a harsh reality: amateur teams can hardly afford to make a significant run, let alone sustain one.
Azteca has the farthest first-round match in the country — a distance of 693 miles between Denver and Tulsa. It will spend a quarter of its 2022 budget on Wednesday’s game alone. To take a traveling party of 25 players, coaches and volunteer staff, it will cost approximately $15,000. That includes airfare, hotels, transportation, food and other costs. U.S. Soccer reimburses a portion of that cost but it won’t arrive until at least two months later.
U.S. Soccer doesn’t pay teams per round like the FA Cup does in England. If Azteca advances? Those same cost problems re-emerge in the second round.
Still, none of that matters to De La Rosa, or the players on his club, once the opening whistle is blown.
“You can’t replicate a cup run,” he said. “If I am speaking from a management point of view, itap hard because all that money has to be spent just for one game. It takes a bit of that shine away from (the tournament) but, once itap time to play, thatap when you start to feel that magic again.”
Fans will be able to watch on the U.S. Soccer’s YouTube channel, with kickoff set for 6 p.m. MST on the campus of Oral Roberts University.
Winger Anthony Miranda Sanchez is a former U-15 and U-17 Rapids Academy player and current Overland High School student. The 18-year-old played on the same U-15 team as Rapids Homegrown signing Darren Yapi. For him, Wednesday’s first-round match is another shot to keep chasing the soccer dream. For others, it may be the last chance — the reason they spent all those nights in the freezing rain.
“Wearing this badge means representing Colorado and representing my Dad and especially my family,” Sanchez said. “The sacrifices they’ve done — taking me to training, to games, to every little thing, they’ve supported me all this way. … I know not everyone gets a chance to be here and we’re going to take advantage of it.”
