The top court at the Los Angeles Tennis Center was a bit more
green than usual this Sunday during the Soccer Tennis U.S.
Invitational.
With Astroturf laid out on the court, eight teams from around
the world represented their respective countries in the inaugural
tournament.
Thomas Dooley, a former captain of the U.S. World Cup team,
founded the American Soccer Tennis Organization with the idea of
having professionals come together to compete in an intense
tournament featuring an essential and fundamental practice drill
used by soccer players of all ages.
“I wanted to bring in professionals who have played at the
highest level. Some of them have been to the World Cup and won the
World Cup,” Dooley said.
“It’s the most exciting training exercise, and
it’s the best one to learn technique.”
The rules for the game are a blend of soccer, tennis and
volleyball. Each team consists of three players who play at the
same time and try to capture two sets, with each set being played
to 15 points.
Though the tournament was the first of its kind, the sport
itself is by no means new. It has been played for decades across
the world.
“This sport has literally been played everywhere, in every
country in the world, but it just hasn’t been organized on a
formal level,” said Paul Caligiuri, a member of the 1990 and
1994 U.S. World Cup teams.
The U.S. was represented by Caligiuri, best known for scoring
the goal that led the U.S. to its first World Cup in 40 years in
1990, who was joined by teammates Eric Wynalda, the U.S. all-time
leading scorer, and UCLA coach Jorge Salcedo, who played both at
the professional level in Major League Soccer and at the national
level for the youth national team.
Salcedo uses the game as a form of practice for his Bruin squad
and finds it very useful in improving the finesse of a
player’s game.
“It’s something that we do every week the day after
a game, or sometimes the day before a game,” Salcedo said.
“As a team we play a little tournament to recover the day
after a game to move around, to loosen your body, to get some
touches.”
The U.S. players teamed up to meet crowd-favorite Iran in the
first round for what was perhaps the most exciting game of the day,
going the full three sets and coming down to a final point to win
the match and move on to the next round.
With the crowd on its feet cheering for the Iranian team, the
U.S. was able to win the point and advance to the second-round
semifinal against a Mexican team featuring three-time World Cup
team member Alberto Garcia Aspe, and Luis Hernandez, one of the top
all-time goal-scorers for the Mexican national team.
The U.S. trio was unable to capture a second victory. Mexico
advanced to the final, ultimately losing to Brazilians Aldair,
Paulo Sergio and Paulo Silas.
Aldair and Sergio were both members of the 1994 Brazilian World
Cup champion team, and Sergio was a member of one of the most
esteemed European club teams in Bayern Munich.
Though the Soccer Tennis U.S. Invitational was the first
tournament of its kind, it is one that players who are past their
prime can enjoy while still exercising their competitive
spirit.
“It gives guys like me who are finished playing something
fun to do, without all the playing around and all the pounding on
my body that the real sport takes out of you,” Wynalda
said.
Though Dooley is unsure as to how the sport will be received and
whether or not it will become global, he is still testing the
waters and hopes to extend soccer tennis to players at all levels
and of all ages and ethnicities in the near future.
“We are going to go to about eight different cities and
have tournaments to determine the national champions at the amateur
level as well,” Dooley said.
But at the end of the day, regardless of the scale at which is
played, the sport will aim to achieve its primary goal.
“It all comes down to working on technique,” Dooley
said.