Lifting his left leg up, Martinez redirected Sasaki’s cross on goal. While keeper Jose Cortez Cruz got a hand to it, the force of the ball bent his arm backwards. The shot hit the back netting to make it 1-1. “Scoring the tying goal was an incredible moment for both myself and the team,” added Martinez. “I think it provided a sense of relief in what had been a really tight game.”
The winner came with virtually the last kick of overtime from Toufik Najem.
“It's a never-give-up attitude whether you're ahead or even, or whatever it might be. There's just no quit,” said Shelburne, President of the Mozos, about those important moments when games are decided. “That's just not something that West Texans do.”
Lucca Motta perfectly squared the ball into the center of the box for Najem. The native of Morocco, who’d only entered the game in the 96th minute, shot low, sneaking the ball past the keeper for an eventual 2-1 win.
Not bad for someone who’d been observing Ramadan for the entire day, only breaking out dates and water as soon as the sun set over the West Texas horizon.
“Everybody is expecting you to do something and with the crowd supporting and everything, that put me under a lot of pressure,” said Najem. “I wanted to do something but I was not expecting it to be like that, scoring a goal in the 118th minute.”
The drama wasn’t quite as heady in the Second Round, played on the very same field and in front of those same frenzied Mozos. Sasaki again had a huge influence on proceedings as he assisted another Martinez match-winner early in the second half before adding his own insurance goal in stoppage time to seal a 2-0 win over the Dallas-area FORO.
“They sacrificed and made history,” Coach Paul Gilbert said of his players – an assessment that fit both the First and Second Round wins. “Now we get to go to the Third Round!”
International Brigade
Officially, the only American on the Lubbock roster that took down Arizona Monsoon FC and FORO was Gilbert. Every other player was an international.
