Downers Grove soccer club makes impact

Updated: March 22, 2011 4:16PM

Ten days in Spain put a local club soccer team on the map and threatens to have a big impact on the high school season.

The Downers Grove Roadrunners U-17 team made history in July by becoming the first American team to advance to the championship game of the Valencia C.F. Cup, an annual tournament for top European youth teams.

Unlike more well-known area clubs like the Chicago Magic and the Fire Academy that draw players from a wide area, the Roadrunners fielded players from Downers Grove and surrounding towns.

Downers Grove North seniors Paul Hogan, Matt Paprocki, Azmi Sharif, Alex Vogler, Tom Budnik, Eric Garcia and Jakob Mousel and Downers Grove South seniors Kyle Wolf, Joe McLean, Tim Herlihy, Conor Kelch and Mike Leahy comprised the bulk of the team, most of which has been playing together since seventh grade.

The team spent 10 days in Madrid and Valencia, playing six matches - a friendly and then five tournament games. Their visit took place just days after Spain had won the World Cup.

"We flew into Madrid and it was still all crazy, flags everywhere," Naperville North junior Evan Trychta said. "Going into a different country like that you don't really know what to expect. We were the only American team there, so we kind of surprised ourselves a little bit."

The Roadrunners more than surprised their opponents. After losing its opening match 4-1, Downers Grove won its next game 1-0 on a goal by Henry, then upset C.F.B. La Eliana 3-1 as Trychta scored twice.

In the semifinals, the Roadrunners stunned heavily favored Sporting Boadilla from Madrid 1-0 on penalty kicks. Paprocki saved two penalty kicks in the shootout.

"Thankfully, I'm either the hero or no one really thinks about it because I'm not expected to make saves, but in that case I did come up with some big ones," said Paprocki, a Xavier recruit. "But at the same time our defense and everyone throughout the game, they put me in that situation."

The Roadrunners weren't as fortunate in the title game, held at Valencia's 60,000-seat Mestalla Stadium, as they lost 3-2 on penalty kicks to Fotos Navarro of the Spanish Canary Islands.

"After a while, you look back on it and you're like, ‘Making it to the championship game was pretty cool,'" said Hogan, the tourney MVP.

"Overall we can't complain."

For all the success on the field, what Hogan and Paprocki will remember most is getting a glimpse of the obsession Europeans have for soccer.

"Just experiencing the culture and kind of the atmosphere that everything is soccer there," Hogan said. "When I was there I didn't see anything about baseball or American football. I thought that was really cool."

"It was when the LeBron James [saga] was going on and you didn't see one thing about LeBron James," Paprocki said. "It was all Real Madrid, what the Spanish national team is doing. Everything is about soccer and it shows on the field.

"It's just the intensity. At the youth level, American teams are very tactical and very well-organized. But Spanish teams just play all the time. The intensity they bring every day is because of the atmosphere that constantly surrounds them."

The Roadrunners' success is rubbing off on Downers North and Downers South, who were 13-1-3 through Saturday. Expectations are especially high at North, where just two years after winning only two games the Trojans are talking about capturing the school's first state championship.

"I feel that that Downers Grove North team is kind of under-looked," Trychta said.

Sort of the like the Roadrunners were up until two months ago.

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