St. Charles FC returns from Paris World Games with a trophy, memories of a lifetime
Talk about the Arc de Triomph.
A group of 15 boys - 14 St. Charles East varsity soccer players and one from Batavia - plus Barrington girls coach Roberto Avendano and team manager Christian Ruiz stormed the Bastille to win the Under-18 age division at the Paris World Games, July 10-15.
Playing in the July 15 final against the French team Mantis La Ville, Batavia junior Brokk Olberg's first-half 28-yard strike from Aiden Maloney's indirect free kick gave the Americans the 1-0 victory.
The match was played in the Emile Anthoine Sports Centre, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
"When are you going to play again a game like this?" said Avendano, whose son, Giuseppe, made the trip as a senior midfielder/defender for St. Charles East.
"That was insane," said senior Jake Walker, named the championship MVP for shutting down Mantis' top offensive player.
"Playing underneath the Eiffel Tower and that becoming a normal thing that's happening, that gives me jitters right now," Walker said Monday. "It was so surreal. It was like a fever dream.
"That trip, we'll talk about it the rest of our lives. It was amazing, it was unforgettable."
There was one more stop that night before the squad flew back to the States the next day.
"We won it, we ran back to the hotel, showered, and took the metro back to the Arc de Triomphe," Avendano said.
Before playing in France, St. Charles FC went 2-1-1 in U-19 play at the Spain Cup in Barcelona from July 2-8.
During that event, the team hit the beach daily, shopped, saw the sights "and ate amazing food," Walker said.
In Paris. the boys were more soccer players than tourists.
"The problem was, we kept winning," Roberto Avendano said.
They did visit the Eiffel Tower, the Parc des Princes stadium where Lionel Messi played, and watched the July 14 Bastille Day fireworks.
"We didn't get to see the Louvre, the art museum, but we saw it from the outside," Avendano said.
"Like 2 a.m.," Walker noted.
Whether it was three-to-a-room, going up the Eiffel Tower or playing underneath it, the trip was a huge bonding experience for the boys.
Joining the Avendanos, Maloney, Olberg, Ruiz and Walker, St. Charles FC consisted of Griffin Counts, Brandon Garland, Ryan Groselak, Robert Kutrovatz, Logan Lewarchick, Garrett Melton, Alex Meseke, Omar Ontiveros, Jordan Rolon, Connor Sychowski, Marc Walker and team parent Vince Rolon.
Batavia's Olberg, a 2022 honorable-mention all-DuKane Conference player, signed up to complete the mandated 14-man roster when others waffled on making the trip. Jake Walker said Olberg was a familiar face from the club soccer circuit.
"The team welcomed me as one of their own," Olberg said. "I had a lot of fun with the guys on the trip and got closer to a lot of them."
In group play at the Paris World Games, St. Charles FC was in a pool with three other teams out of the 20-team A-level.
They got out of group play with wins over two French squads and a scoreless tie against a team from Columbia while playing on three different fields. In the quarterfinals St. Charles beat an aggressive Italian team 1-0 under the Eiffel Tower.
In the July 14 semifinal at Paris' Centre Sportif Suzanne Lenglen, St. Charles FC survived a scare against that same Columbian team.
Leading 1-0, St. Charles drew a red card, and with a man down surrendered the tying goal.
With about two minutes left, goalkeeper Jordan Rolon booted the ball about 60 yards downfield. Lewarchick gathered the ball, dribbled in, deked the goalie and pushed it in for the game-winner.
The next day, with all-DuKane center back Jake Walker marking "probably the best guy I've ever played against" one-on-one, and Rolon unblemished, Olberg delivered the sole goal for the trophy against Mantis La Ville.
"Once the ball left my foot I just knew it was going to be a goal," Olberg said.
Leaving the Paris World Games with a 5-0-1 record and an 11-2 goal advantage sets up not just Olberg but St. Charles East for the fall schedule. After a strong 2022 regular season that earned a No. 2 seed in the Class 3A playoffs, the Saints lost 2-1 in a shootout to No. 10 Glenbard East to finish 17-3-4.
"I think it definitely prepares them mentally, gives them confidence. Definitely no other team will have the same kind of team bonding that they did," said Roberto Avendano, who will return to teach Spanish and French at Barrington and coach the junior varsity Fillies girls team.
Walker said the "do-or-die" atmosphere against Columbia and Mantis will benefit the Saints. But the trip to Paris will always mean a little bit more.
"I know this team, we'll be friends long after this season's over, and we'll look back on that trip, for sure," he said.