“Naturally, decisions of this caliber are carefully considered and are extremely difficult to make as they affect multiple individuals, both internally and externally,” Golden Grape Entertainment President Hondo Candelaria said.
While the announcement wasn’t entirely unexpected, the Toros had struggled for years after Houston Dynamo withdrew as the parent club. That left all the expenses for contracts on the local owners, and the money from attendances just wasn’t there to keep the club going. That split happened in 2020 and the Toros gallantly fought on for three more seasons.
It’s disappointing, with the club averaging 4,506 fans per game last season, their second best, it wasn’t enough to keep the club going.
The help of a feeder club is obvious in Edinburg, where the RGV Vipers basketball team continues to operate, thanks in part to an association with the Houston Rockets.
The Toros never matched the heights of their first season, where the valley club came second in the Western Conference.
HEB Park will not be without a tenant as UTRGV will now take over, playing their football games at the stadium for the first time this year, the school’s first as an FCS school.
Candelaria’s announcement referenced multiple individuals, with the club going out of business all staff are now without work. That includes all the players who will now be free agents.
RGV is the second USL Championship team in Texas to fold in the last three years after Austin Bold’s failure in 2021.
SAN ANTONIO – A dramatic equalizer was a perfect cap to the end of the Copa Tejas derbies in the US Championship. San Antonio FC fought back to nick a point with a late Mitchell Taintor equalizer.
A perfectly executed set piece gave Rio Grande Valley FC the lead in the 34th minute.
Christian Pinzon set up at the top of the D for a corner kick with no San Antonio defenders near him. He had plenty of space to work with.
That gave him enough time for a perfect first touch. It sells out the San Antonio defense and allows for a powerful shot from just inside the area to open the scoring.
The Toros didn’t have to wait long for a second, and it all started with a perfect switch.
With San Antonio leaving space on their right, Akeem Ward is spotted, and the play is switched to that side of the field.
That forces Connor Maloney to come to the ball. Ward plays a deft pass over the top of him for Pinzon and continues his run. That then sucks in another defender allowing him to receive the ball and keep running at goal. With San Antonio flat-footed, he has a chance, and he takes it, scoring at a tight angle to stun the Toyota Field crowd.
SAFC got away with one in the first minute of the second half.
The poor defense continued as the offside trap failed, and Jonas Fjellberg was given space for the shot. His effort only found the woodwork and fell into the arms of a grateful Jordan Farr.
Eric Pimentel thought he’d headed the Toros 3-0 up but was flagged for offside. The one angle on the broadcast makes that look questionable, but it’s a bad angle.
The camera isn’t level with play, and the ball is already kicked, so it’s hard to argue with the assistant on the line. That said, Pimentel is onside with this shot if he didn’t move early.
San Antonio got back into the match just before the hour mark after Shannon Gomez took advantage of being afforded too much space.
It wasn’t too much, but he used the space to take another touch that closer marking would have avoided. That allowed him to screen the shot with the defender and curl it inside the post.
A sneaky run then sealed the equalizer.
The RGV FC defense seemed to forget about Mitchell Taintor, who ghosted in with a run that he then angled sharply. That left RGV outnumbered on the header, and Taintor’s speed made it too powerful for Tyler Deric and salvaged a point.
Several major sports leagues and teams made statements following the repeal by the United States Supreme Court of Roe v Wade the historic decision that gave people nationally the right to an abortion. One prominent voice was absent from the stage, Texas’ professional soccer teams.
Houston Dynamo and Dash were the only organization to make a statement, a powerful one in light of the lack of even an acknowledgement from every other professional team.
Texas Soccer News reached out to every other professional club. Austin FC, El Paso Locomotive FC, Rio Grande Valley FC and San Antonio FC all chose to ignore the email.
The only reply was from FC Dallas, which said, “FC Dallas has declined to comment”.
Grant Wahl tweeted that the probable reason we haven’t seen clubs’ statements is that the clubs’ owners support the decision. And he’s no doubt correct.
Still no statement from @MLS on the Supreme Court decision, unlike the NBA, in part because influential MLS owners support the decision. The vast majority of MLS fans do not. https://t.co/jR52pLRxwl
Austin FC owner Anthony Precourt shows in the FEC database donating the maximum amount ($2,900) to Michael McCaul’s re-election campaign. McCaul voted against the Impeachment of Donald Trump and supported building a wall on the US-Mexico border. He listed Austin FC as his employer on that donation.
FC Dallas owner Clark Hunt shows multiple maximum donations to Ron Johnson, one of Trump’s best allies in congress. Johnson used his position on the Senate Homeland Security Committee to push COVID-19 conspiracy theories. He called the decision a “victory for life”. He also opposes climate science and is a strong gun-rights advocate. Johnson ascribes to the great replacement theory. Most notably, Johnson attempted to circumvent the will of the people in the 2020 general election, trying to give Mike Pence an alternate slate of electors for Michigan and Wisconsin. He voted against creating the January 6th commission.
Today is a victory for life and for those who have fought for decades to protect the unborn. For almost 50 years the decision of nine unelected Justices prevented a democratically derived consensus on the profound moral issue of abortion. Now the debate can be returned to states. pic.twitter.com/cmH8jwIJDd
— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) June 24, 2022
Hunt also donated to Genevieve Collins, who ran for Texas’ 32nd district on an anti-abortion platform which lost to Democrat Colin Allred. Further donations from Hunt went to Senator Cory Gardner, another anti-abortion politician who also opposes same-sex marriage, something else FC Dallas will likely decline to defend.
The most significant donation from Hunt was to the Senate Firewall Committee, a Republican Super PAC that sought to hold the majority in the senate that has since been disbanded. Hunt contributed $22 400 to that committee, which has among its aims controlling the Supreme Court and repealing Roe v Wade.
Woody Hunt, the senior chairman of the company that owns El Paso Locomotive, donated $109,500 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. He made the same donations to the Take Back The House Super PAC.
His biggest donations to individual politicians were repeating maximum contributions to Senator John Hoeven, who is anti-abortion and anti-same-sex marriage. He voted against the January 6th commission and opposed background checks to buy guns.
RGV owner Alonzo Cantu may have donated almost exclusively to Democrats, but his largest donation was to Henry Cuellar. Cuellar is infamously the only congressional Democrat opposed to abortion access.
Julianna Holt, the CEO of Spurs Sports and Entertainment, made a $100,000 donation to the John Cornyn PAC. While Cornyn has garnered attention for bipartisan gun control efforts, he is staunchly anti-abortion and gay marriage. Cornyn tweeted out after the decision, “now do Plessy vs Ferguson/Brown vs Board of Education”, which was interpreted as racist. Cornyn clarified that he meant it was good that some Supreme Court decisions overturn precedent.
While none of the silent teams dared to speak up, even in a comment for this article, their silence and owners’ political contributions speak volumes. The owners of these clubs don’t want women to have access to abortions. It remains doubtful if these clubs will speak up when Oberfell v Hodges is repealed denying same-sex marriage or a Griswold v Connecticut repeal denies access to contraception, both of which Clarence Thomas’ decision eluded to, or Loving v Virginia ends up reversed, and Interracial marriages aren’t protected as was in the draft.
It’s easy to say, “well, they want to keep politics out of soccer”, but they all have no problem hosting military nights, which is also profoundly political. The owners just want to muzzle their team’s media departments despite the popularity of speaking up from their fans, which must be difficult for those in them who oppose such decisions.
EDINBURG – It was an emotional night in Edinburg with Rio Grande Valley FC and San Antonio FC fans and players coming together to honor the Uvalde victims in their match. It seemed that the soccer was secondary as everyone remembered how trivial it was. That said, the two teams put together an entertaining match.
In the 21st minute, both teams took a knee. They paused for a full minute to commemorate the tragedy unfolding close to San Antonio.
Four minutes after resuming, SAFC had the first clear chance of the match with only some good scrambling to keep RGV off the sheet.
With an even match up, but with runners coming San Antonio should have been favored but some close marking forced a pass. That pass went out to Connor Maloney, allowing RGV to regroup and eventually clear the ball.
But that ball was only half-cleared, and San Antonio came right back to score the opener.
Some intelligent positioning in the box, forming a diagonal line, forced the Toros to keep Justin Dhillon onside. SAFC attackers had a good awareness of where all their teammates were, allowing for two flick-on headers. That ended at the feet of Justin Dhillon, who quickly slammed it home.
An almost unforgivable sin saw the hosts get back on level terms.
San Antonio let the ball bounce allowing Juan Cabezas to take advantage. All three defenders were trapped, grouped too closely together to do anything. That allowed Cabezas more space and also blocked Jordan Farr’s view. It showed a slight lack of trust in each other in a set-piece situation.
Another mistake in the box, this time from the Valley, allowed SA to get back in front.
In real-time, it looks like a better save than the still. But Tyler Deric has both hands on the ball, but there’s too much spin on it. That sees Deric spill the ball, allowing Mitchell Taintor to tap the ball home.
Any red card will influence the match, but it had a significant impact with a derby at 2-1 with just under 15 minutes to play.
With two players already down from a physical battle, Erik Pimentel ramped up the physicality. Getting fully off the ground and sticking his boot up to foul his man forced the referee to decide. A yellow was the minimum as the foul was at the least reckless. Still, the referee determined it was excessive force and gave a violent conduct red card. Things went slightly wrong for Pimentel to get the red. He might have avoided the straight red if he had slid lower instead of jumping in or got the ball. It mainly was poor timing, but he went in too hard, seeing the referee pull the red.
Now a man and a goal down, the Toros had to go for it, which left them vulnerable to a counter-attack.
That’s precisely how San Antonio doubled its lead. Despite that, the RGV defense did what it could, pushing Dhillon to a tight angle.
There was a late consolation goal thanks to an intelligent ball forward and a bad mistake from Farr.
Farr came out and missed the ball. That allowed a flicked on a header, and despite Farr being so far away, Duilio Ibarra was left onside. That allowed him a simple finish to minimize the goal difference damage.
While San Antonio took the win, there’s some work to do. Both goals showed defensive teammates not trusting each other, which will need to be worked on in training this week.
EDINBURG – Rio Grande Valley FC re-signed three critical pieces of the team on Tuesday to help start the club’s new era. Erick Pimentel, Emilio Ycaza and Juan David Cabezas have re-signed for the 2022 season.
Pimentel will be playing his second season for the Toros as a rock in the back-line last year. Last season, he took leadership of the team and made 30 tackles, 50 clearances, 11 blocks, and 36 interceptions. Having a Spanish-speaking player also provided a boost for RGV off the field. His ties to Club America can connect with some in the local community.
Ycaza was a mid-season transfer from Austin Bold and went on to play 13 matches in the Valley as a midfielder. He scored twice and provided two assists in his cameo appearance for the Toros after making 17 appearances for Austin. 2021 was his first professional season. He developed well as the season went on; he will continue that development in 2022. Head Coach Wilmer Cabrera has already tabbed the youngster as a leader for the club.
Cabezas will also be entering his second season in 2022 after taking the armband in 11 matches. Last year he established himself at HEB Park, playing 1,546 minutes for the club. The midfielder was a crucial part of their plans to move forward, managing an 84.6 percent passing accuracy.
The Colombian has represented his country at the Under 20 level and has experience with RGV’s former partner, Houston Dynamo.
2022 will be a historic year for RGV FC, the first without ties to the Dynamo and its first season in the US Open Cup. Cabezas will be a significant boost for the cup, having won the tournament with the Dynamo in 2018.
It’s been a very different year of squad building for the Toros, but expect more announcements to come out of the Valley shortly.
Texas Soccer News 