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Two Mexican American franchises celebrate soccer and culture in PDL action Saturday

Thursday, May 3

by: Jason Minnick

The battle for the city of Puebla, Mexico, a town directly between the French landing point near Veracruz and Mexico City, is known to Americans as Cinco de Mayo. Used most recently as a marketing tool to sell beer, the Mexican National Holiday is only largely celebrated in Puebla and Mexico City.

Mexican Americans are the new owners and architects of this celebration.

It began in San Francisco, where Mexican Americans molded the fifth of May into a fiesta of identity. The holiday, wildly mistaken by Americans as Mexico’s Independence Day, now stands for Mexican American pride. It is more than just a dizzy carnival of music, food and dancing. Cinco de Mayo is a day of celebrating La Raza – the Spanish legacy.

“Cinco de Mayo is a big event around town,” said Shashi Vaswani, owner of United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League franchise, the Laredo Heat. “If you visit Laredo you’ll realize quickly it is a Spanish first town. About 99% of the people here are Hispanic.”

This Cinco de Mayo, two USL PDL franchises with free flowing ties to the Mexican way of life welcome outsiders. The Heat hosts the Baton Rouge Capitals. Their Rio Bravo brethren and arch rivals, the El Paso Patriots meet the Austin Lightning.

“We have a folk dance planned during halftime and there will be parties all day throughout the city leading up to the game,” added Vaswani. “It is a big part of the history in Laredo. As soccer relates to Cinco de Mayo, there are certain games held in Mexico that coincide with the holiday but soccer is not specifically elevated. Soccer is such a big part of the culture that is does not need to be elevated, the sport is celebrated every day.”

“The true meaning of the day is to remember the battle of Puebla,” said El Paso Patriots Vice President Diana Cervantes. “Being so close to the border, we respect Cinco de Mayo along with the rest of the El Paso community. We also have a lot of fans in our neighbor city of Ciudad Juarez.”

“We are building a lot of excitement for this weekend’s double-header,” added Cervantes. “This will be our franchise’s sixteenth year and with the holiday falling on a game day we have a huge celebration planned. It will include Mariachi bands, Mexican dishes and dollar beer specials. There is so much going on that we are debating whether or not to bring out the big screen TV so the fans can enjoy the dollar beer special while watching the Oscar De la Hoya/Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight.”

The only thing separating the cities of El Paso and Laredo is an 850 mile stretch of the Rio Grande – a little less than half of the entire border between the United States and Mexico. The cities themselves are likenesses in every way, including two combative soccer teams.

“El Paso is our biggest rivalry,” said Vaswani. “Based on the similarities in styles of play, the fact that we are both border towns, we draw players from the same pool of guys from Mexico – it all adds more to the rivalry. We will find out who the better team is this year on May 10th and 11th. Obviously we strive to be the better team on the field and our fans view it as an important game because of the merging of two Mexican based franchises.”

“Laredo,” agreed Cervantes. “We are very familiar with each other. The players are familiar with one another. Our styles are similar. We are even the same height.”

They used to be.

“We looked for size this off season and landed a 6’4” 240 pound guy who can play up front,” said Vaswani. “We learned a lot in PDL playoffs last season. Great teams learn how to shut you down if you play one way. Augusta played a style similar to our own where as Bradenton was a young group who adapted well to our Southwestern style. It only got tougher as we advanced in playoffs, adjusting to the different styles.”

“Playing Westchester and Michigan really opened our coach, Israel Collazo’s eyes,” added Vaswani. “We learned that Americans look for a lot of size and speed in their game. Accordingly we have gone a little American with this season’s recruiting, maybe 70/30 in favor of the Mexican style. Being better in the technical game does not win all the time and that is what we are trying to do. Don’t get me wrong, the Mexican style of play is very important to our success, not only on the field but in the stands as well. The fan base we draw from is made up of Mexican First Division soccer fans. They want to see a style of play they are accustomed to – touches and technicality rather than long passes. Playing this style has made us somewhat successful but we also understand that we cannot rely on it 100%.”

El Paso has gone with youth captained by a Mexican role model. The two franchises mirror one another again, this time in seeking adaptability.

“This year is very different from any other year,” said Cervantes. “We have a very young group. Our coach has brought up a lot of players from our U18 academy team here in El Paso. The young guys look up to 2006 PDL All-Southern Conference defender Hugo Samano. He is our veteran leader at age 27. The rest of the team is brand new; a few of them are only 17.”

“We are working to appeal to the kids in the El Paso area,” added Cervantes. “Roughly 80% of our team is native to El Paso. We hope to provide them with opportunities to be scouted by universities. Our goal is to develop our youth academy, build our stadium and move up to the USL First Division level.”

The constant blending of soccer styles Laredo faced in PDL playoffs last season represents a microcosm of the evolution of soccer in the U.S. these past 20 years. Teams from New England bring size and English tactics. Teams from Southern California and South Florida boast individual flair and creativity. Teams from the Mid Atlantic are well rounded: small technical midfielders with toughness, stalwart defenders who can play small ball. And now Texas – represented by this intense rivalry, Laredo and El Paso, one or the other, PDL Finalists the past two seasons.

“Now-a-days you cannot go with one approach, it is vital to the success of North American soccer that we blend the styles. I talked to some of the Mexican National Team coaches at the youth level and they mentioned they are influencing players to do some weight training and get bulkier. On the other hand, people also know how to beat the bigger and faster American type of soccer. But when you blend the two and become adaptive it advances the game. Each PDL team excels in one or two of those areas. Being able to adjust is the key.”

Blending styles of play and unifying proud ethnicities – a great characteristic of this emerging soccer culture, a great way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.