Legends FC SCV G10 Black is taking its next steps as a youth soccer team, heading to the National Cup.
The squad punched its ticket after winning the 2024 Elite SoCal State Cup back in March and will now make one more stop this season, Dicks Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado.
The core of the team has taken plenty of steps in its four years together, but now, sticking to coach Justin Morton’s saying of “just taking another step,” has landed the team in the national tournament in July.
“We have a saying, I always tell them, ‘It’s just another step. Everything we do is just another step,’” Morton said. “Last year, when we won league, we made it out of the first round, but got knocked out in the sweet 16. We took the next step this year, and the expectations were that we would make the final four.”
Morton and co-head coach Justin Lundin’s team made the final four of the State Cup but weren’t done yet. The team survived a penalty kick shootout in the semifinals before advancing to their championship match.
Morton now owes his team some ink, as he told his girls years ago if they ever won the State Cup, he’d get a Legends tattoo. After winning the cup, the players weren’t even off the field celebrating yet before reminding their coach on the wager.
“Before they even ran off the field, the first thing they did was they came running over me saying, ‘You gotta get a tattoo now!’” Morton said.
Morton will be getting his new ink eventually, but will wait until after the National Cup, with hopes of a “national champion” element for his tattoo.
Legends thrived off physical defense and a possession-heavy attack.
“We’re pretty big, size-wise,” Morton said. “Our defense and our midfield are just extremely strong, so we’re able to possess. I think all of our games were pretty much either shutouts or one- or two-goal games.”
The majority of the team was pulled up from an AYSO all-star team four years back and has built up a strong connection together on and off the pitch. The National Cup will be the last games together for many of the players as the coaches plan to move up and promote their standouts.
“The majority of the group has been together now for three or four years,” Morton said. “This is kind of the last hoorah because we’ll be moving some of our players up to our new (Elite Clubs National League) program, or up to the flight one team.”
No matter their finish, Legends FC SCV 2010 is one of the few to make the prestigious tournament, which hosts the best of hundreds of club teams across the country.
Should the team emerge victorious, the girls would return home Legends SCV’s third national championship in the past two seasons.
Legends takes its next steps together on July 21, when National Cup games begin.
