As part of the 1995 US Open Cup Rewind Series, TheCup.us staff went back in our time machine and voted on a Player of the Round. Each round we will honor the best individual performances of each round of the tournament.
A promising young defender made his way from his home country of Colombia to New York City looking for a fresh start in a country where pro soccer was also looking to make a comeback.
About five years removed from his last professional club, Carlos Llamosa had found a home with the New York Centaurs of the A-League ahead of their inaugural season in 1995.
After a slow start to the campaign (2-5 record, only 5 goals scored), the Centaurs found themselves hosting the opening round of the new-look US Open Cup against the USISL Pro League’s Connecticut Wolves at Downing Stadium on Randalls Island.
1995 US Open Cup Preview: The state of American soccer in 1995
1995 USOC Round 1 POTR: Carlos Llamosa
1995 USOC Q-Finals POTR: Ben Crawley
1995 USOC Semis POTR: Jake Arrambide
1995 USOC Final POTR: Jeff Causey
1995 USOC Player of Tourney: Rob Ukrop
1995 US Open Cup Results (click on the score of the game for a match report)
After New York’s Lee Tschantret was sent off in the 15th minute, the Centaurs were forced to play a man down for the remainder of the match. Despite playing shorthanded, U.S. National Team player Sadri Gjonbalaj put New York ahead in the 22nd minute, and three minutes later, the team’s center back Carlos Llamosa pushed up and got his head to a Paul Allen cross and gave the Centaurs a 2-0 lead. The 10-man Centaurs would add a Marcelo Carrera goal in the second half and come away with a 3-0 shutout win despite playing a man short.
Combined with his goal and being the heart of a defense that only needed New York goalkeeper Bo Oshonoyi to make four saves in the shutout win, Carlos Llamosa was voted TheCup.us Player of the Round. The award is voted on by a select panel of TheCup.us staff and contributors.
Other finalists for the award included former US Men’s National team star Bruce Murray (2 goals in the Atlanta Ruckus’ 4-2 home win over the Tampa Bay Cyclones), Jeremy Gunn of the Chico Rooks (1 goal, 1 assist in a 2-0 home win over the San Fernando Valley Golden Eagles), and Llamosa’s New York Centaurs teammate Bo Oshoniyi (4 saves in his club’s 3-0 home win over the Connecticut Wolves).
The New York Centaurs, a club that was only a few months old when they kicked off against the Connecticut Wolves on June 14, 1995, was the beginning of Llamosa’s goal of reviving his professional soccer dreams.
Prior to arriving in New York, Llamosa was an up-and-coming teenage defender who started playing for his hometown club in Palmira. Colmena Deportes, which competed in Colombia’s second division, signed him when he was 16 years old, which was a challenge to balance his schoolwork with his budding professional soccer career. He played three seasons with the club and after the 1988 season, Colmena Deportes folded.
Back then, despite the club ceasing operations, the owner was allowed to maintain his players’ rights. Llamosa was loaned out to Atlético Huila, a new addition to Colombia’s second division. After impressing during the 1989 and 1990 seasons, Atletico Huila offered to buy Llamosa from the Colmena Deportes owner, but he demanded more money and the two teams couldn’t come to an agreement on a transfer fee.
Llamosa, the youngest in a family of 11 kids, had applied and was approved for a green card in the United States. The goal was to possibly move there to join seven of his siblings who had settled in New York City. After months of back and forth with Colmena Deportes’ owner trying to sell him to various teams, Llamosa decided to move to the Big Apple rather than continue a fruitless dispute over his playing career which had been put on hold.
In May of 1991, he arrived in New York where he began working various jobs. This included working as a bouncer at a Queens night club, and a job as a janitor at the World Trade Center. The job at the World Trade Center worked well for Llamosa because he was able to earn a living, while also staying in shape by playing in the evenings in the highly competitive local soccer scene. While largely amateur, many of the better players were paid.
“I started realizing that there’s more soccer (to play) in these Sunday leagues in Flushing Meadows Park,” said Llamosa. “There were good teams and obviously being in New York with people from all over the world. You know, you play against a Greek team, but the Greek team had Brazilian players or African players. So there was a lot of good competition.”
Among the teams that he suited up, one of the most high profile ones was with the two-time US Open Cup champion Brooklyn Italians. He played for the Italians from 1992 until 1993.
On Feb. 26, 1993, Llamosa was working at the World Trade Center on a tragic day in American history. He received his paycheck and took an extended lunch break, which was the norm every Friday. This gave World Trade Center employees a chance to deposit or cash their paychecks before the weekend. While he was out of the building, a small group of terrorists detonated a bomb in the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center, killing six and injuring more than 1,000.
Llamosa and some of his coworkers were at a Chinese restaurant just a couple blocks away when they heard and felt the explosion.
“We went out to the street and there was a lot of people wondering what happened,” recalled Llamosa. “People were saying a train (must have) crashed underneath the (World Trade Center) towers because there was a train station right below the towers.”
In 1994, on the heels of the United States hosting a successful FIFA World Cup, there was momentum for professional soccer in America. Major League Soccer was set to launch in 1996 and the United States had second and third division professional leagues in place. The second division American Professional Soccer League (APSL), would add two new teams (Atlanta Ruckus, New York Centaurs) and re-brand itself as the A-League.
El Diario journalist Pepe Pertuz approached Carlos Llamosa and suggested that he attend an open tryout for the New York Centaurs who were going to play next season on Randall’s Island.
After making the team, he quit his job as a bouncer, but kept his job at the World Trade Center because the schedule worked well with practices and games for the Centaurs. Llamosa’s promising career as a professional soccer player was back on track and he was able to support his wife and his son, who was born the year before.
“(The Centaurs) was my first experience playing (professional soccer) on American soil,” said Llamosa. “I came from Colombia, the pace of the game is different there, so coming here and playing for the Centaurs, it took time to get used to the pace of the game here. It was so much different.”
