Empire Six Bag Dramatic TST Win Worth $1 Million

Strykers’ Gomez shines again as Bumpy Pitch FC downs Pumas de Alabama 2-1

Cary, N.C. — Featuring six players who donned the Empire Strykers kit during the 2024-25 Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) season, Bumpy Pitch FC won the 2025 edition of The Soccer Tournament (TST) by way of a dramatic 2-1 final win over Pumas de Alabama on Monday evening. The fiercely contested game, which notably ended with each team fielding just two players due to the 7v7 tournament’s “target score time” format, saw another outstanding showing from Empire goalkeeper Brandon Gomez. The Los Angeles native added to his excellent play over the course of the past few days by keeping his side in contention with several key saves.

The Strykers’ victorious contingent also included defenders Momo Gueye and Jose Gonzalez, defender-midfielders Alan Perez and Andy Reyes, and forward Mounir Alami. The club’s former head coach and executive vice president, Jimmy Nordberg, served as Bumpy Pitch FC’s general manager, playing a pivotal role in constructing the trophy-winning roster.

As the world’s premier small-sided soccer event, this year’s TST boasted icons of the outdoor game — such as Sergio Agüero, Luis Nani and Sebastian Giovinco — alongside over 110 MASL players. The success of teams stacked with MASL talent provided further evidence of the league’s status as the highest level of professional indoor soccer anywhere around the globe. Of the six TST sides featuring players who laced up for Empire in 2024-25, all but one advanced from their respective groups and into the knockout stages.

With its triumph in the final, BPFC took home a winner-take-all prize pot of one million dollars.

Brandon Gomez was called into action on several occasions in the first half. After José Mariano Amaro Ríos turned at the top of the box and forced the Empire ace to dive to his left for an early parry, Gomez was tested again halfway through the opening period. On a free kick just outside the area and right of center, José Antonio Medina Alvarado sent a clever low shot toward the near post that took a wicked deflection off Mitchell Cardenas inside the wall and required the BPFC backstop to get his entire body behind the ball for the intervention.

In the 13th minute, the Strykers’ 2024-25 MASL Rookie of the Year finalist, Alami, very nearly bagged an assist, as he found himself on the right wing and cut to his left before sending a pinpoint chipped cross to the far side of the box, where Christian Martinez Borja received with a deft touch and quickly fired toward the bottom-left corner of the goal. The attempt forced a brilliant right-footed kick save by Pumas de Alabama netminder Luis Diego Gómez Luna, whose impressive reflex saw the ball trickle across the byline.

Two minutes later, it was again Brandon Gomez’s turn to shine. Three Pumas players combined for a gorgeous attacking move, as Christopher Alexis Castillo Mejia turned with the ball near the right touchline and picked out a centrally-located Medina Alvarado, whose delicate first-time touch into the path of streaking midfielder Yajarmabet Canaan Moreno Higuera created a excellent one-on-one opportunity. Fortunately for BPFC, Gomez rushed off his line to deny the attempted close-range finish and deflect the ball wide.

After intermission, Empire’s Perez failed to make good contact with his head on a wide-open attempt following a corner kick from the left. The wasted chance was punished moments later, as Hugo Iván Rodríguez Abundiz dispossessed Strykers icon Reyes shortly before the half-hour mark, allowing Miguel Aldair Giorgana Hernández to pounce by slotting a left-footed finish inside the far post from the right side of the box.

The game’s next noteworthy moment came three minutes later, Adrián González Sandoval taking aim from well outside the box on the left and nearly doubling the Pumas advantage as his left-footed rocket whistled narrowly over the upper near-side corner of the frame.

With the leading team having scored one goal, the target score at the end of 40 minutes was set at two, meaning BPFC would need consecutive netters in order to emerge victorious. Ten minutes into the game’s extension, which required each side to reduce the number of players it was fielding by one every three minutes, ‘keeper Brandon Gomez joined the attack for BPFC and sent a warning shot on target from range, his dipping right-footed effort at 5v5 forcing backstop Alfonso Giovanni Rodríguez Granados to go low to his left and prevent the equalizer.

Two minutes later, Gomez pushed forward again, and this time his bravery was rewarded. The man who joined the Strykers in 2023 picked out target forward Borja, who received the ball with his back to the goal and did well do shield it momentarily, followed by an intelligent layoff to Charlie Gonzalez. Positioned left of center and just outside the area, the former Ontario Fury (today’s Empire Strykers) star cleverly used a pair of defenders as a screen, his delicate right-footed curler leaving Rodríguez Granados without a chance as it found the bottom right corner for a 1-1 score line.

Nearly 16 minutes into target score time, with each team now fielding four players, Medina Alvarado had a golden opportunity to end the match and win the million dollars for Pumas de Alabama. Eddie Gabriel Sánchez Ramírez did well to dribble past a defender at the top of the box, thereby drawing out another opposition player and allowing himself to put the ball on a platter for his better-positioned teammate on the left. Seemingly overwhelmed by the moment, forward Medina Alvarado opted against firing on goal from close range, choosing instead to maintain possession.

Pumas subsequently handed the ball over all too carelessly on two separate occasions, with the first unfolding right after the squandered chance and at 3v3. While the Alabamans miraculously got away with their error, committed in the 17th minute of target score time, their luck would run out six minutes later.

On a quick restart inside their own half, the remaining pair of BPFC players took full advantage of a brief moment of disorientation among their two counterparts. With the opposition failing to sub on a goalkeeper, Charlie Gonzalez carried the ball several feet into the attacking half before calmly slotting a right-footed pass inside the right post to end the match and send Bumpy Pitch FC’s entire roster of players and staff off the bench, onto the field, and into a frenzy.