The Triumphant Debut of the Street Soccer USA LA Cup

Oh yeah — the Urban Pitch Podcast crew was also on the mic, adding to the already immaculate vibes.

The youth tournament alone saw over 300 participants from ages 10-14, and the adult tournament featured three different divisions with teams from LA, San Diego, and even Baja California. Dena United took home the youth crown, while Romany FC and LA Galaxy won the women’s and open divisions respectively.

It was a triumphant return to LA Live for Street Soccer USA, who put together a similar LA tournament in 2018. A lot has changed since then, even just at LA Live alone. The Staples Center is now Crypto.com Arena, the Microsoft Theater is now the Peacock Theater, and there’s a few more statues in the courtyard, including one commemorating Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game.

Those eight years have also seen Street Soccer USA build incredibly strong roots in the Los Angeles community. The organization has built programs throughout the area in neighborhoods like Watts, Paramount, Pico Rivera, West Adams, Crenshaw, and Skid Row.

In addition, Street Soccer USA opened a new street soccer park facility at Hollydale Regional Park in South Gate on April 16, a new pillar and safe space for the community to play and develop their skills. It’s also free to use, a refreshing change of pace from the status quo of reservation fees, locked gates, and zip-tied goals.

While Street Soccer USA’s Cup series is their flagship activation, taking place in high profile locations with major production value, it’s the everyday programming they do in communities across the country that is the real secret sauce. Events like the LA Cup and Times Square Cup garner headlines, but the real change is being made at places like Nickerson Gardens, and Imperial Courts, where SSUSA has made massive inroads with the kids that live there.

Still, it’s nice to see communities come together for large scale celebrations like we did at the LA Cup, and we hopefully won’t have to wait another eight years for the next one, as SSUSA is planning on making this an annual affair like its East Coast counterpart in New York City, which has seen four successful years of action.

If that’s the case, we’ll defer to the slightly paraphrased words of Kylian Mbappe: We will be there no matter what.

Photography by Jorge Sanchez for Urban Pitch.