Soccer Finals’ Big Goal: Money for Scholarships : Sports: The 32-team ADELA league, whose matches attracted 5,000 fans Sunday, also seeks to offer alternatives to gangs.

Thousands of spectators trickled into this city’s sports stadium Sunday to witness the Super Bowl of soccer, Orange County style.

It was the final playoffs for the 32 predominantly Latino teams in the Orange County soccer league sponsored by ADELA, a Santa Ana-based Latino advocacy group.

ADELA had hoped to fill the stadium to its 9,000-seat capacity and raise $45,000 for the National Hispanic Scholarship Fund, which distributes the money to college students throughout the county. But the more modest crowd of 5,000 will probably net the scholarship fund about $25,000.

At stake for the players was $7,000 in first-place prize money, which dropped to $1,000 for fourth place.

Four Santa Ana teams played in the finals, but Jess Araujo, a Santa Ana attorney and ADELA’s legal adviser, said he would be watching no matter who was playing.

“I’m a football fan, and this is just like the National Football League,” Araujo said. “Whoever is playing in the Super Bowl, I’m going to watch it.”

Although soccer may have been on the minds of many players and fans, it was not the only thing on the minds of event organizers.

ADELA, the Latin American Sports and Cultural Organization, hopes to provide an alternative to gangs and drugs by promoting soccer and cultural activities such as Mexican folkloric dancing.

“If players are practicing and playing on Saturday, and they are with their families on Sunday, they don’t have time to do anything bad,” said event organizer Sergio Velasquez, publisher of the Spanish-language newspaper Miniondas.

Velasquez acknowledged that the number of players in ADELA has dropped from a high of 19,000 to 14,000 because of players defecting to other leagues.

But he noted that ADELA has started youth leagues, which include 16 girls’ teams. Two of those teams played a heated exhibition match during the first halftime Sunday, drawing loud applause.

The Rockies and Liverpool battled into overtime for the title. The Rockies won, 5-4.

Super Antojitos and Park Land--named for their sponsors, a Mexican restaurant chain and a local lawn supply business--faced off to determine third and fourth places. Park Land won, 2-1.

Santa Ana resident Andres Tejeda, 31, came to the game with his wife and three children, one of them dressed in a red and white soccer uniform.

“It’s like baseball for Americans,” said Tejeda, who is from Mexico, when asked about the appeal of soccer.

By the time the first game was winding down, about 5,000 people had entered the stadium. Local Budweiser distributor Straub Distributing Co. had donated $40,000 to the tournament, including the prize money, and promised to match every dollar raised by the $3 ticket sales that went to scholarships.

Among those in the crowd Sunday was Luis Castillo, 67, who recalled starting the county’s first soccer team in 1958.

He said that back then, players had to buy cleats and soccer balls in Tijuana, using basketballs when they could not get the real thing. He also noted that the now concrete Santa Ana stadium was made of wood.

“It has completely multiplied” from the humble roots of that first Santa Ana soccer team, Castillo said as he looked onto the field. “How good it is.”