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El Paso's Omar Mora named POTR
Assist, stunning equalizer helps El Paso upset Miami FC
By Duke Keith
www.elpaso-patriots.com
It was the perfect ball.
In the 89th minute of the first round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, with his team trailing to First Division’s Miami FC, 2-1, El Paso Patriots forward Omar Mora turned up a diamond in Patriot Stadium.
The perfect ball played to the perfect spot, as if it had been bouncing toward Mora adorned with a bow – gift-wrapped.
It was actually a clearance, as the stout Miami FC defense clamped down on Mora’s teammate, Carlos Martinez, who was making a desperate run into the Miami area to try for a long ball sent in by Jorge Briones from right wing.
The Patriots had tried this one before since falling behind in the 78th minute, to no avail. But this ball was played to space better than if it had been sent in from Zidane. Better, because in double-teaming Martinez Miami FC left a gap open in its defense. The next closest FC player was trailing Mora as he came up from midfield.
 Better, because Mora wasn’t the object of Miami’s tough marking, as he had been most of the night.
However, many a perfect ball is tarnished by a bad shot. Credit Mora, who can do more than make a wish when he sees a star fall to his feet.
Mora pounced on the ball and, in near-Jai-Alai style, scooped a first-time rocket off the top of his foot and into the right upper 90. Miami goalkeeper Pat Hannigan had no chance.
The Patriots had tied the game, 2-2, where it remained until El Paso upset Miami FC in penalties – a first for a franchise that had seen the two most meaningful games in its 17-year history end with El Paso on the wrong end of penalty kicks.
In 1995, the Patriots tied, 1-1, in the finals of the first Open Cup of the professional era – the first Cup to allow professional teams. El Paso lost to the Richmond Kickers in penalties in front of nearly 9,000 El Pasoans at the Socorro schools’ Student Activities Complex.
Ten years later, it happened again – same stadium, almost the same crowd – in the Premier Development League finals, as El Paso and Des Moines went scoreless before the Menace took the crown in PKs.
But against Miami everything was perfect.
Mora’s goal had impact, and not only because it tied the game minutes before the end of regulation. This was a goal of destiny.
“It was good for us and from there we knew we had to win this game,” Mora said.
For that goal, plus having assisted Michael Griego with a pin-point pass in the 21st minute for the game’s first score, the 25-year-old Mora was voted by fans as the "USOpenCup.com Player of the Round", narrowly edging two goalkeepers, Adam Edwards from the Ocean City Barons (PDL), and Kevin Trapp of the Western Mass Pioneers (USL-2).
El Paso’s win was the First Division’s only loss in the first round of soccer’s 94-year-old all-comers competition and the biggest upset – the PDL is two notches out of Miami FC’s league.
Mora, who started with the Patriots when he was 16, is happy for his hometown and his team.
“It’s the team that gave me the opportunity to play professional soccer and I’ll always be happy with this club,” said the Del Valle High School grad. “I’ve always loved playing for El Paso. This is my city.”
Mora’s response is typical of many players on the Patriots roster, unique in American soccer. Probably nowhere other than in the high desert of El Paso del Norte do so many players play the game in their hometown. Over 90 percent of the Patriots call El Paso home.
“If anything, that just shows we have very good players in El Paso,” says Mora.
Good enough to make it to Mexico’s second division, where Mora played three years for CD Zacatepéc and Tabasco before returning home. El Paso is where his young family is, along with his heart and his team.
His team is currently 5-3-2 (17 points) in PDL play and sits one point out of first place in the Mid-South Division. Leadership of the Mid-South is on the line Saturday night as the current leaders and last season’s PDL finalists, the Laredo Heat (5-1-3, 18 points), are in El Paso to renew the Rio Grande Rivalry.
It is a credit to Mora and his teammates that they shook off early season troubles and are now in the thick of things in both the U.S. Open Cup and the PDL.
“We’ve been trying to break out since the first game. We didn’t do that well in our first few – they weren’t that good,” said Mora, the Patriots’ Number 10. “But we’ve done a lot better these last few times.
“This last game (Miami FC) gave us a lot of confidence.”
El Paso will look to capitalize on that confidence as they travel Monday for a Tuesday-night game with another First Division side. The Charleston Battery await the Patriots at Blackbaud Stadium in the second round of the Open Cup.
Defending MLS champions, the Houston Dynamo, await the winners. Should the Patriots pull another upset, Houston will be heading west for a July 10 match in El Paso, “which would be great for our fans,” says Mora, but “we have to take it step-by-step.”
The next step next season is apparently a move back to the top level of the United Soccer Leagues. The Patriots dropped to PDL four seasons ago from what was then the A-League, now First Division, and Mora says he would relish the challenge of moving back.
“If the team moved up I would look forward to the opportunity to stay here,” he said. “I’d like to stay here.”
Like that game-tying goal, it would be perfect.
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