While most of America was probably enthralled with Hollywood and the Oscar ceremony scene, a select crowd of 600 or so braved frigid temperatures and snow in New York Sunday night to witness the crowning of Steve Elias as North America's "King of All Freestylers" and the title of "The Maestro."
I was among those on hand at Webster Hall to take in the Red Bull Futbol De Calle finale. For those unfamiliar with freestyle, it's typically a fusion of soccer and ball-juggling skills along with music and dance. (Check out this clip of Ronaldinho vs. Junichi Inamoto .)
As such, the gathering last night was very hip -- not just your usual soccer crowd. A quick glance at the throng revealed media from the Village Voice and Maxim, among others, traditional soccer media such as Ives Galarcep, players (the Red Bulls' Marvell Wynne and Todd Dunivant), various models and members of the hip-hop community (Grandmaster Caz of Cold Crush Brothers fame was one of the judges), as Red Bull flexed its marketing muscle.
Heading into the evening, the word was that the Toronto pair of "Jayzinho" (Jason Quezada) and "Eli Freeze" (Steve Elias) were the hot favorites, with "Conejito" (Noe Cornejo) from Washington expected to provide some heavy-duty competition.
Having seen freestyle performers around the world, I was curious to see the level that North American talent could bring to the table and admittedly was duly impressed. Between a combination of stage nerves and according to Jayzinho, a misplaced shipment of balls requiring that a new batch be broken out for the first time, the freestylers had more errors than expected but the overall performance was still pretty good.
Memorable moments of the night:
1. Tim Donnely from Los Angeles, giving up his spot in the elimination after the second round to crowd favorite Angelo Storms since Donnely believed Storms deserved it (despite the fact that Donnely technically won their duel on the judges' scorecards).
2. Noe Cornejo's semifinal battle with Eli Freeze that was probably better than the actual final (between Freeze and Storms). In that round, Freeze overcame Cornejo (Ives' and my personal favorite on the night) with a slick move where he flipped two balls on top of each other and juggled them. Cornejo is a former Pumas youth team player, a fact I found out after ragging him about the recent U.S.-Mexico result.
3. Angelo Storms -- at 19, the youngest competitor in the field. Storms pulled out a number of quirky moves including one where he juggled the ball on his back in a bicycle motion. Count Marvell Wynne among his fans: Wynne told me he found Storms the most "entertaining" freestyler on the night and that of the current Red Bulls, rookie Sinisa Ubiparipovic was the most likely to be able to pull off a freestyle act. (Based on that alone, here's hoping Ubiparipovic makes the Red Bulls' final roster.)
4. Overheard. "I thought soccer was supposed to be boring -- this is sick." (Two women discussing the merits of freestyle soccer.)
I'd say whoever it was with the Red Bulls who came up with this idea deserves a bonus -- you have to give the organization credit for coming up an innovative way to attempt to sell the sport and continue to bridge the gap between soccer and the American public. Judging from the reception last night and some of the attendees I spoke with, they might have even succeeded in converting a few new casual fans to soccer. Here's hoping for a Futbol De Calle encore next year.
Jen Chang
