A newly-formed semi-professional men’s soccer team has high hopes for repping Boston’s biggest neighborhood while offering young athletes a new route to compete in “beautiful game.”
Dorchester City Football Club— or Dot City FC for short— is nearing the end of their debut season in the United Premier Soccer League’s (UPSL) Division I.
Founded by Dorchester native Filipe Oliveria, the team currently holds a record of 2-6 with two more games on the schedule, including an Oct. 25 finale against the Fall River Marksmen at Moakley Park in South Boston.
The California-based UPSL, considered the fourth tier of the US soccer pyramid with Major League Soccer (MLS) at the top, fields 400 teams across the country in regional conferences playing in fall and spring seasons.
Oliveria, who founded the former Percival Brewing Company that produced Dot Ale beer brand, said he organized the team to “showcase the neighborhood and put it on a platform.”
“Being that I’m a life-long soccer fan, it hit me one day, wouldn’t it be great if Dorchester, given it’s the largest neighborhood in the city of Boston, why can’t we have our own legitimate sports team?” Oliveira said. “Not like an intramural or weekend league or anything like that, but something legitimate.”
Oliveira recruited some of the Dot City FC’s first players from Ceylon Park, the 4.3 acre city-owned park with a turf soccer field tucked off a sidestreet between Columbia Road and Magnolia Street.
That’s where Leonardo “Leo” Sousa and his friends discovered the start-up club in July.
“We were actually just looking for people to play with,” Sousa told The Reporter. “We were getting ready for the summer tournament that we play in every year, it’s called the Boston Unity Cup. We were looking for people to play with, and we know teams practice there all the time. I saw a bunch of players, and my friend went up to the coach and asked if we could practice with them.”
“From there we learned more about what was going on, what they were working toward, and what Dorchester City is all about, and that’s when we joined.”
Robert Alexander, 33, is the head coach. He discovered the team on social media and applied to lead the squad.
“I knew it would be a project,” said Alexander, whose former coaching experiences include youth hockey and adult amateur soccer out of the Casa Soccer League of Boston. “I also knew it would be an opportunity for me to ascend to the position of head coach without the experience of an assistant job or a job helping out with an existing team.”
Oliveria, now living in Milton, quickly seized upon the extra help.
“We would have to establish a semi-pro team, compete in a semi-pro league, go up the chain of command, and go through the different levels of that league and eventually try to pursue something on a larger scale,” he said.
Alexander and Oliveira hosted tryouts in July.
“We were able to put together a ragtag team,” Oliveira said. “The typical Dorchester story: it’s a bunch of different backgrounds, and we sort of came together and started building up the club that way.”
Over the summer, Alexander continued to come across talent in and around Dorchester.
“We would practice in Dorchester— Ceylon Park, Roberts Park— and we would run into players who were just kicking a ball around, practicing with their friends, scrimmaging with their friends, things like that,” said Alexander. “If they passed the eye test and looked like a talented football player, I would approach them, and sometimes they would even approach us. It’s been really great to acquire that local talent.”
Team captain Leo Sousa (center) with teammates and Dorchester residents Manny Pereira (left) and Zee Wattley (right).
Cassidy McNeeley photo
Sousa, born in Brazil but raised in Boston, was one of those discoveries. The 27-year-old midfielder has since become a leader of the team, wearing the captain’s armband on match-days.
“To me, playing for this team is like living a dream,” said Sousa, now living in Mattapan. “I grew up trying to play in clubs, and it was always a struggle for me, especially financially at the time. To be able to play at such a level now, it’s a dream.”
“When it comes to this team, we really needed defenders. I told Coach, if you need left back, I’ll play,” Sousa added.
The team wears a green and gold jersey emblazoned with an elephant, which Oliveria says was chosen “because the elephant is really communal, and it’s a herd.”
“It represents community, strength, and togetherness, and I think that’s what Dorchester is. This little, unique, ethnic sort of neighborhood, but together we’re a strong community.”
“When other people ask me about Dorchester, I use the color green. A lot of people think it’s a reference to the Irish community, it’s not,” said Oliveria. “Green is the color for immigrants, and that’s what Dorchester is, an immigrant community. Green represents that color, the ethnicity, how diverse the community is.”
He added: “Gold to me is that one standard. It showcases the strength, the golden thread to bind all these communities together to form one major community.”
Zee Wattley, 25, was also recruited from Ceylon Park, wears number 17 and plays left back. He came to the US just three years ago from Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean. He now calls Dorchester home and works as a CNA at Dorchester’s Boston Home.
“It’s been a process,” said Wattley. “This is actually my first semi-professional team. Being the first season for the team, it means a lot, you’re playing in history.”
Some other standouts on the roster include Tyler Johnson, a former Division 1 player at Air Force who leads Dot City in points; Jack Benjamin, who has proven to be a calming presence in the back on defense; and Matt Brune, the goalkeeper.
Manny Pereira, born and raised in Dorchester, has worked his way into the starting lineup as well. Though the start of the season was tough, he thinks the squad has turned a corner.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily about how you start but how you finish,” said the Bunker Hill Community College student. “We can’t really do anything about the first half of the season, the only thing we can learn from it and try to do better.”
In the meantime, he hopes to continue to do what he loves and “hopefully inspire the youth to do the same thing.”
Assistant coach TJ Marshall thinks that’s what it’s really all about.
Head Coach Robert Alexander hopes to win the remaining regular-season games so that the team can advance to playoffs. Cassidy McNeeley photo
“I hope that people are walking by and seeing that there are young people not on their phones or doing stupid things. They want to get together and be outside, and be a part of something. I’m hoping there are kids who walk around and see there is opportunity in the community to look toward something.”
He added, “Hopefully, it makes them think twice if there’s a silly decision to be made. They think, ‘Maybe I want a chance to play at another level someday, maybe I should go to bed or go to practice and not do something silly.’ I hope it’s a motivator for the middle and high schoolers now who might have that opportunity in a few years.”
It’s a motivator for the current players, too, all of whom want to return for the spring season and one day move on to a higher level. “I want to be part of it as more than just a player. I want to be part of the future of the club,” said Sousa. “I feel like the club right now is opening a lot of doors for Dorchester and the surrounding neighborhoods to get to that next level.”
In the future, Oliveira and Alexander hope to establish a women’s team and a youth organization as well.
“We understand that soccer is played at all levels by all individuals. Because Dorchester is such a diverse community, we want to make sure that all levels of diversity are reflected in our club,” said Alexander.
He added: “True to the goal of the league, I think we would love to continue to help develop talent in this neighborhood. We would love to see athletes in this neighborhood getting noticed. Whether that’s being able to get recruited to college or the ultimate goal, progressing to a higher level of football. We would love to have a player sign a professional contract; that would be a dream.”
The team has two games left on the season: The first is on the road on Sunday, Oct. 19 against New England Combine FC in Worcester. Their final regular-season home game at Saunders Field at Moakley Park is Oct. 25 against the Fall River Marksmen FC.
They hope that with a few more wins, a playoff push is still in reach.
After that, the countdown until the spring season begins. But between now and then, according to Oliviera, the club is “actively and enthusiastically looking for individuals to fill leadership roles,” and open to new talent. If you’re interested, reach out to info@dcfc.soccer.
