John Romero’s Maidstone Market men’s team has been a perennial champion here in the outdoor version of 7-on-7 soccer, but it’s taken a while for his futsal squad, the East Hampton Futbol Club — one of eight opponents to fall to a formidable Ecuadorean team, Liga De Gulag, during the regular season at Amagansett’s Sportime Arena — to master the indoor version.
On Sunday evening, when many were watching the opening quarters of the Super Bowl, the E.H.F.C. and Liga De Gulag, which went in to the quarterfinal-round playoff game at 8-0, faced each other again, in a battle that had a packed house riveted for the better part of an hour of nonstop action, a game that E.H.F.C. was able to win in a penalty kick shootout during which its first three, Mark Bako, David Ayala, and Bryan Cueva, scored, while Liga De Gulag’s Cristian Solis, Santiago Solis, and Edwin Alvarez did not.
It was sweet revenge for Romero’s crew, which had lost 5-1 to Liga De Gulag earlier in the season.
Controlling the ball — a smaller, softer version of the one used outdoors — Liga De Gulag stayed on the attack. Cristian Solis sent a shot over the crossbar of E.H.F.C.’s goal midway through the first 20-minute half, and, with 3:50 left until the break, Santiago Solis was robbed of a goal by E.H.F.C.’s goalie, Alex Mesa, who, splayed out on his back, kicked away a hard, floor-hugging shot bound for the left corner of the cage.
Meanwhile, Bryan Cueva anchored a tenacious E.H.F.C. defense, frequently heading back high passes bound for Liga De Gulag’s fleet forwards.
In the final minute of the half, Cueva, from midcourt, launched a shot that banged off the crossbar of the Liga De Gulag cage.
The second half was scoreless too, though not for lack of trying. A big argument ensued early on when a Liga De Gulag defender slid within the goalie box to block a goal-bound shot taken by Bako, E.H.F.C. claiming that the offender should have been yellow-carded for the infraction. A free kick was awarded in close to Bako, but E.H.F.C. could not put it by Gulag’s goalie, Edgar Farez, who was to benefit from the fact that before the clock ran down two E.H.F.C. bids caromed off the posts.
After the frenzied back-and-forth action of the first 40 minutes, the penalty kicks seemed almost anticlimactic. Mesa passed the test, facing down three Liga De Gulag shooters before Cueva, arguably E.H.F.C.’s M.V.P., sealed the victory, which obviated the need for the teams’ fourth and fifth kickers to take their turns at the penalty kick spot seven yards out from the cage.
The men’s open championship game is to be played at the Arena on Sunday at 10 p.m.
Romero’s team, whose roster also includes John Romero Jr., Eric Armijos, Jorge Naula, Danny Bedoya, Robert Cueva, and Manuel Ruiz, played on Saturday too, besting Los Yankees 4-1 behind goals by Mesa, Armijos (two), and Naula.
Los Yankees, attacking from the get-go, broke the ice on a goal by Paul Farez in the 14th minute, taking advantage of a rare lapse by Mesa. Two minutes later, E.H.F.C.’s goalie atoned with a length-of-the-court goal that sailed in just under the crossbar. Thereafter it was pretty much all E.H.F.C.