A native Delawarean is celebrating big after winning $1 million for his soccer team during an international tournament earlier this week. NBC10’s Tim Furlong shares his story.
A native Delawarean is celebrating big after winning $1 million for his soccer team during an international tournament earlier this week.
The Delaware-native soccer player and his team just won the popular TST that hosts teams from around the world for a seven-on-seven winner-take-all tournament.
La Bombonera is based out of a non-descript indoor complex in New Castle, Delaware, and had only trained together for a few weeks ahead of The Soccer Tournament that brings men's and women's teams from all over the world onto the field for a face-off.
The owner of the complex and his friend reached out to the best players they could find and asked them to make up a team that would ultimately defeat 47 other teams at the tournament.
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Chad Poarch, 26, is originally from Middletown and is a University of Delaware alum who was the one to net the million-dollar goal during the winner-take-all tournament.
The newly-formed team is made up of mainly players from Mexico and they all came to Delaware to train together. Poarch is the only player on the team from Delaware, and you can be pretty sure they're glad they got him.
"Just being the team from Delaware, he made it more special that someone from Delaware scored the winning goal," Juan Perez, the general manager of La Bombonera, told NBC10.
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It's incredibly impressive! Footage from the stands shows Poarch steal the ball from his opponent and calmly race toward the net.
"Honestly when I was through the ball on breakaway, it was silent in my head, like it was quiet, and as soon as I hit the ball it was like a movie. Like, crowd went crazy,' he said.
As he approached the goalkeeper, he managed to take a shot and the ball passed through the keeper and into the net.
In the video, the goalie is then seen landing on the ground and taking a seat as Poarch and his team celebrated their victory.
The La Bombonera team leaders are not sure what they'll do with their piece of the prize money yet.
For Poarch? His parents were very happy to hear him on television explaining his plans for his newfound piece of the fortune.
"I'm so thankful he said what he said. He needs to pay off some student loans and credit cards and invest a little money. That made my day as a mother," his mom Cynthia Poarch said.
Deciding which bill to pay off first isn't a big problem, but coming down from the magic moment on Monday night? That is going to be much tougher for the soccer player.
"It is honestly a dream come true. I can't even put it into words," Poarch said. "I'm still on the high. I was crying this morning. I was crying yesterday and the day before. I'm still trying to come down."
Poarch will have to keep training. La Bombonera is planning to head back to North Carolina next summer to defend their crown and get another one of the big fat checks.
The U.S. Women's team also walked away with $1 million prize money after successfully beating out the other women's soccer teams at TST.
