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Kuskatan FA’s inaugural squad

AF Kuskatan (AFK) successfully organized its first official tournament, which took place in Woodbridge, Virginia on June 27, 2021. The one-day event saw Team Senegal, Himalayan Bhakundo Club, and AF Kuskatan each face one another. The championship match between Team Senegal and the Himalayan Bhakundo Club was a passionate and tight game. Team Senegal came out triumphant with a 2-0 victory. 

The ‘Kuskatan Invitational Tournament’ was an exciting way to get the ball rolling in 2021 and to give teams an opportunity to continue building. AF Kuskatan founder, Brian Rodriguez, shared his thoughts on the weekend and AFK’s inaugural match. 

Team Senegal wins the championship match

What was it like to have your team on the field and playing for the first time?  

It was a good experience in general, but I wish we could have done more. Many of the players and teams are used to weekend tournaments similar to ours. We hope to have had four teams in total and a longer time frame during the day that would allow for more people to attend, cookout, dancing, music, etc. Hopefully in the future, we can make something like that happen. In short, many of the players and staff were able to get more information about Kuskatan’s background and programs, including WUFA. 

What did this experience mean to you, the players, and the community they represent?  

It means a lot to us because it’s a long-term project. This is just a start but we want to do more for the community. We had hoped that the kids’ tournament we had planned would have come before this. That would have given us more attention to the tournament here in the USA. So, we just hope to do more for the community. 

Any lessons learned, and what is the vision going forward for the team? 

I think lessons learned are just the need to get everyone in the USA who is originally from El Salvador more involved with our initiative. There are many organizations here in the USA that support the towns or villages that they are from in El Salvador, sometimes through programs like soccer. If we can get more involved with the indigenous communities, which we have like Lenca, Pipil, and others, it would be an even more beautiful vision.