The winner will go home with $1 million, while the loser will go home with nothing.
That is what remains on the line today as Newtown Pride and SLC FC compete in the championship match of the first-ever The Soccer Tournament in Cary, NC.
In the inaugural edition of the energetic 7-on-7 tournament, there have been thrills throughout the weekend as the unique rules have made for electric comebacks and great moments.
The two teams reaching the final were both considered underdogs heading into this tournament, and both sides had to get past teams with big name players, athletes, and stars. They now are just 40 minutes plus Target Score Time away from a massive $1 million prize, while the team falling short will walk away with nothing but memories.
The Sporting News is following the TST championship match live, providing score updates, commentary and highlights as they happen.
TST Championship live score
| Score | Goal scorers | |
| Newtown Pride | – | – |
| SLC FC | – | – |
TST Championship live updates, highlights, commentary
3 mins to kickoff: We’re moments away from getting started with a match to win $1 million! And it’s a genuine championship prize. The loser goes home with nothing. How nervous would you be in pre-match warmups?
Warmups underway for the $1,000,000 match
This game is about to be insane… pic.twitter.com/hdyWCOmWza
— TST (@TST7v7) June 4, 2023
10 mins to kickoff: Just how much emotion goes into a match with $1 million on the line? Well, take it from Raheem Rose of SLC FC, who scored their game-winner to send them to the final. His celebration didn’t exactly go planned, as he tried to take his shirt off in jubilation, but couldn’t quite make it happen. Here’s to the celebrations going better this time!
Thanks to the Target Score Time format, someone on one of these two teams will score a goal to end the match and seal a million dollar payout. How about that for a lifetime memory?
🗣️FOR CANADA
The moment Raheem Rose sent SLC FC to the $1,000,000 TST Championship!!!
⤵️🇨🇦⤵️🇨🇦⤵️🇨🇦⤵️ pic.twitter.com/d3OWut0JiE
— TST (@TST7v7) June 4, 2023
15 mins to kickoff: This $1 million final isn’t the only prize given out at TST over the weekend. Kenneth Perkinson of Raleigh Rebels won the Goalkeeper Wars challenge, earning himself a cool $2,000 cash prize. The competition is a goalkeeper skills challenge that pits players against each other, similar to what they did at the MLS All Star Skills Challenge last summer in Minnesota.
The FIRST EVER TST Goalie Wars winner‼️
Raleigh Rebels’ GK Kenneth Perkinson talked about what it means to win $2,000. ⤵️🤑@dr_perkyy | @RenegadeGk pic.twitter.com/t9Rx2OY8l6
— TST (@TST7v7) June 4, 2023
30 mins to kickoff: The lineups are in. SLC will play with three midfielders and one forward, while Newtown Pride deploy a 2-2-2 formation in front of their goalkeeper. How would you set up a team if you were contesting a 7-on-7 match with $1 million on the line?
The lineups for TST’s first $1M winner-take-all Championship Game!
Newtown Pride FC vs SLC FC
Newtown Pride FC
Formation (2-2-2)
GK – Paulo Nascimento #21
D – Robert Palmer #51
D – Drew Ruggles #16
M – Issak Somow #8
M – William Eskay #14
F – Kelvin Nunes #77
F – Gabriel…— TST (@TST7v7) June 4, 2023
45 mins to kickoff: Obviously, the ruleset of TST makes it quite unique, from the 7-on-7 format, no offside, kick-ins instead of throws…but the thing that stands out the most is Target Score Time (there’s a primer on how this works further down the page if you’re new).
Target Score Time derives from the Elam Ending which was introduced at TST’s parent competition, The Basketball Tournament, and received rave reviews. In TST, every match ends on a walk-off goal no matter the score, ensuring no team is effectively out of a game until the final goal is scored.
The largest Target Score Time comeback through the inaugural tournament was a four-goal turnaround from Zala FFF in the quarterfinals, entering the golden goal period down 3-0 to Como 1907 before eventually winning 4-3. Will we see another shocker like this in the final?
ZALA FFF JUST SCORED FFFOUR GOALS IN TARGET SCORE TIME TO ADVANCE TO THE SEMIFINALS 🤯🤯🤯🤯
THE GREATEST COMEBACK IN TST HISTORY pic.twitter.com/f79S0foRvp
— TST (@TST7v7) June 3, 2023
“We knew if we kept it tight we’d always have a chance in target score time”
Lee Nguyen speaks following Zala FFF’s dramatic come from behind win! pic.twitter.com/iOJ3XY1PcH
— TST (@TST7v7) June 3, 2023
1 hour to kick off: Neither one of these teams was supposed to be here, playing for a $1 million prize, yet here they are. It speaks to the advantage that current professionals have against bigger-name athletes who are past their prime, and in many case retired.
The Sporting News spoke to former USMNT striker and retired MLS player Chris Wondolowski after his Team Dempsey was eliminated in the group stage, and Wondo expressed that it was physically taxing for someone like him who has reached 40 years old. Both teams reaching the final feature mostly current professionals or amateur players, which speaks to the importance of the physical element of this tournament.
I caught Mia Hamm after the USA Women finished up their final match @TST7v7
I asked her if she’d gotten a call from Vlatko with a few injuries to the #USWNT.
“Oh heck no. We wanna win” 😂🤣😂 pic.twitter.com/Rf3568LyrO
— Kyle Bonn (@the_bonnfire) June 2, 2023
TST Championship rosters & key players
Newtown Pride is an amateur club hailing from the Sandy Hook area of Newtown, CT. They won the 2019 National Amateur Cup, which is a tournament-based competition across the United States run by the U.S. Adult Soccer Association (USASA), with the winner gaining entry to the U.S. Open Cup, although Newtown Pride never got to compete in the U.S. Open Cup after its cancellation in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The side lost its first match of the tournament, a 2-1 defeat to Kingdom FC, but have won every single game since, conceding just one goal or fewer in every single victory, an impressive feat through such a high-scoring style of competition.
The roster features a wide variety of attacking players, noted by the fact that 10 different players have scored goals in this tournament, led by five each from Gabriel Ganzer and Kelvin Nunes.
Newtown Pride roster: 1. Quantrell Jones (GK), 21. Paulo Nascimento (GK) — 4. Filipe Dutra, 16. Drew Ruggles, 17. James Thomas-Cruz, 20. Tony Wells, 23. Marcel Berry, 24. Stefan Mijatovic, 51. Robert Palmer — 7. Onua Obasi, 10. Gabriel Costa, 11. Jean Ferdinand, 14. William Eskay — 8. Issak Somow, 9. Tavoy Morgan, 15. Gabriel Ganzer, 44. Alencar Ventura-Junior, 77. Kelvin Nunes.
Hailing from Newtown, CT…@NewtownPrideFC is ☝️ win away from $1,000,000
It’s time to finish this🏆 pic.twitter.com/wV5gu9cXQP
— TST (@TST7v7) June 4, 2023
Hailing from the Canadian city of Toronto, SLC FC (which stands for Sports League Canada) feature a number of players from the Canadian national futsal team.
SLC FC have just one loss on the tournament in group stage play, winning their other four matches. To reach this stage, SLC FC had to take down more than one team that featured USMNT senior team, MLS, or even Premier League experience, including Blade & Grass FC (Danny Drinkwater, Stephen Ireland, Leon Best, Brek Shea, Zat Knight, Geoff Cameron) and Zala FFF (A.J De La Garza & Lee Nguyen) in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively.
Like Newtown Pride, SLC are also built on defense first, having conceded more than two goals in a match just once (their 3-1 group stage loss to Hapoel Tel Aviv). Their goalscoring is spread around the side, with the three from Raheem Rose leading the way amongst a list of nine goal scorers in this tournament.
SLC FC roster: 1. John Smits (GK), 30. Filip Zendelek (GK) — 2. Daniel Gogarty, 4. Jarred Phillips, 7. Sammy Ssebaduka, 17. Kai Martin, 25. Mihai Hodut, 92. Josh Kohn — 5. Raheem Rose, 10. Daniel Chamale, 14. Emmanuel Zambazis, 18. Joe Di Chiara, 95. Abdallah El-Chanti — 9. Damion Graham, 15. Vitali Tymofiienko, 22. Omar Marzouk, 36. Mario Kovacevic.
🗣️THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN!
Tonight, the boys have a chance to bring $1,000,000 back to Canada🇨🇦
SLC FC is ☝️ win away… pic.twitter.com/ZOb4agJudY
— TST (@TST7v7) June 4, 2023
How to watch TST Championship match
- Date: Sunday, June 4, 2023
- Time: 3 p.m. ET
- TV Channel: CNBC
- Streaming: Fubo, Peacock (subscription required)
The TST final between Newtown Pride and SLC FC will be broadcast on CNBC and streamed on NBC’s premium platform Peacock.
CNBC can also be streamed via Fubo, with a free trial available for new users.
The hype for the $1,000,000 championship is building…
Here’s how @NewtownPrideFC & SLC FC got here⤵️ pic.twitter.com/wWVqu2JXB0
— TST (@TST7v7) June 4, 2023
TST rules and gameplay
For those new to the tournament, here’s a brief overview of how The Soccer Tournament is played, via the official tournament rules:
- 7-on-7 (six outfield player, plus a goalkeeper)
- Rosters of 10-18 players
- Unlimited subs which can be made at any point in a game
- No offside rule
- No slide tackles
- No throw-ins
- No draws
- 20-minute halves followed by an Elam Ending (called “Target Score Time”)
TST’s most notable rule quirk is drawn from their innovative ending to basketball games, known there as the “Elam Ending” and here referred to as “Target Score Time.”
Here’s how it works in TST: Matches consist of two 20-minute halves, after which the game is not over, regardless of score. It enters “Target Score Time” which does not adhere to a timed clock.
To win the game, one of the teams needs to hit the target score, which is always one more goal than the winning team’s total at the end of 40 minutes of regulation. For example, if the score is Team A 3-1 Team B at the end of regulation, the target score for either team to hit becomes 4 (one more than 3), and the first team that reaches 4 goals wins the game.
Should 10 minutes elapse in this untimed period without the target score reached, one player will be removed from each team to create a more open game. An additional player will then be removed from each side every further five minutes until one of the teams reaches the target score.
This ending ensures there are no draws, and every game ends on a goal being scored, known as a “walk off” in most U.S. sports.
