Far East United drawn into Group D of TST

Far East United

The pathway for Anton del Rosario's foray into The Soccer Tournament (TST) is set.

Far East United has been drawn into Group D of this inaugural competition, alongside West Ham, Dallas United, and Culture by Mo Ali FC.

The Hammers are set to be backstopped by a trio of club legends in Carlton Cole, Marlon Harewood, and Matt Jarvis. They have a total of 249 goals between themselves, including 106 for the London-based side.

Dallas United is composed mainly of players from the Dallas Soccer Alliance, sprinkled by ballers connected to Castro1021.

Culture by Mo Ali FC is a group assembled by Mo Ali Heydarpour, a Canadian social media content producer who also is a former soccer player and current trainer. He is collaborating on this endeavor with former MLS center back Leonardo.

Even with these formidable opposition, Far East United is coming into this competition ready. The squad is filled with ASEAN football legends, led by Philippines internationals Stephan Schroeck and Anton del Rosario.

The duo will join forces with their Suzuki Cup rivals Safee Sali of Malaysia, Greg Nwokolo and Marc Klok of Indonesia, and Charyl Chappuis of Thailand.

TST is the seven-a-side soccer version of The Basketball Tournament, which features a $1M winner-take-all prize money. It styles itself as potentially becoming the Champions League version of the sport.

Scheduled this coming June 1-4 at Cary, NC, TST teams will be playing matches with two twenty-minute halves sandwiched between a two-minute break, with the clock only stopping for official timeouts or injuries. As the norm in seven-a-side football, flying substitutions are allowed. Replacing throw-ins are indirect free kicks. In case of a match ending in a tie, ten minutes of added time will be imposed, with Golden Goal rules in effect. If it still remains deadlocked, a player from each side will be taken off every five minutes until a winner is declared.

Only the top two teams in each group advance into the knockout rounds, where the prize money beckons.