Soccer scores at Northeastern University as the Boston Unity Cup celebrates nationalities from across the city for three weeks of sport.
The annual Boston Unity Cup celebrates the city’s diversity of cultures through soccer matches
Raquel Castle lost the match but wasn’t defeated.
Panting hard to catch her breath and wiping sweat from her face with her jersey tails, Castle ambled off the turf of field No. 3 on Northeastern University’s campus following her soccer team’s loss. She was representing team Mexico, but opponents Venezuela got the upper hand in a 1-0 win Saturday at the Boston Unity Cup, an annual citywide celebration of soccer, culture and community.
“We’re not done,” vowed Castle, 22, of East Boston.
She was girding up for two more matches over the next three weeks of the tournament, where Mexico will have the opportunity to move up the ranks – or be eliminated.
Castle is a testament to the ultimate goal of Boston Unity Cup – to build a stronger city by showing that Boston is a melting pot of cultures and camaraderie, and using the world’s most popular sport to do it.
The FIFA World Cup dominated much of the city’s attention in recent weeks, with Boston – one of 11 U.S. host cities – accommodating seven of the 104 elimination-style matches with teams from across the globe.
Boston Unity Cup includes around 750 players across 42 teams representing various nations and cultures. They will compete in 86 matches across the city over the next three weeks through August 8, when the championship game will be held.
Castle was born in Honduras but played defender this year with her friends on the team representing Mexico. Last year, she played forward for Guatemala.
John Tobin, vice president of City and Community Engagement at Northeastern, told Northeastern Global News that the event is important to the university, which is a title sponsor, because of the opportunity to celebrate cultural differences and to unite Boston, including the university as a member of the community.
“It’s a reflection of Boston and it’s also a reflection of Northeastern with all the different languages you can hear on campus from students and teachers from all over the world,” Tobin said.
Editor’s Picks
Caroline Foscato, a co-founder of the event, told the crowd gathered at Northeastern’s William E. Carter Playground, said that the event celebrates the kaleidoscope of world cultures that are in Boston today. She said she hoped that the players emerge from the tournament with new friends and better understanding of other nations.
“As we’ve seen with the World Cup, there’s no better way than soccer to bring diverse communities together,” she told NGN.
Saturday’s games kicked off the seventh tournament in the last eight years since the Boston Unity Cup was founded, with one year missed because of the Covid pandemic.
Before the games paused mid-morning on Saturday for opening ceremonies, a few words from the organizers and nods from a couple of politicians. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu stopped by briefly but did not address the crowd.
During the morning break, a drum corps playing Afro-Brazilian Bahia music with snares, and one long bongo-looking timbau, led hundreds of players in a parade of nations with each team dancing to the booms and rat-a-tat-tats as they waved their nationalities flags.
Marcus Santos, 39, a musician from Somerville and a naturalized citizen from Brazil, led the drum corps called ”Grooversity”, an amalgam of the words groove and diversity. He said his group of about a half-dozen musicians joined the day to “showcase the cultures of this amazing city.”
“I think America is the greatest country and this city is one of its melting pots,” Santos said. “As immigrants, we want to show we love this place. I’m proud to sing the anthem.”
Watching the match from the sidelines were friends Daniela Pierda, 22, of Revere and Gisell Castillo, 23, of East Boston, who both are students at Bunker Hill Community College, but came to Northeastern’s campus to be part of the celebration.
Both have Honduras heritage and wanted to watch the matches start.
“At home it’s soccer all the time, especially with my cousins from Honduras,” said Castillo.”It’s soccer and everyone plays. Here we can see that the whole city is in a way like us.”
Piedra added, “This helps us know that we have this in common with so many other countries.”
Boston City Councilman John FitzGerald, who represents Dorchester and portions of the South End, said that the games at Northeastern are unique and “showcase” the city’s various cultures. FitzGerald, who attended Northeastern as a youth earning Bachelor’s in Communication and Master’s in Business Administration, said he always enjoys a chance to get back on campus to support his school.
Massachusetts state Rep. John Moran, who represents most of the South End and parts of Dorchester, was also on hand to support the tournament.
“This is really important because it draws us in to recognize how diverse we really are, it recognizes heritages through sports,” Moran said. “It’s also a great place to learn life skills, leadership and team work.”
After the parade, the tournament kicked back into gear, with the clatter of Boston’s Orange and Purple line commuter rail trains drowning out the referees’ whistles and the whoops of the crowd as goals were scored or blocked.
Castle, who came to the U.S. from Honduras when she was 7, watched on, indulging her passion for soccer.
“My mom wanted a better life for us,” she said. “That’s what America represents. We are here but we bring our old world with us.”
