It sounded too good to be true— I actually won? No way!
That was Maria Dorso's initial reaction when the email rolled into her inbox. Can you blame her? It was an email telling her she'd won MLS Commissioner Don Garber's All In Challenge, which meant she'd be getting a VIP trip to next year's All-Star Game and her signature on the official MLS match ball for all matches at the MLS is Back Tournament.
Dorso remembered donating to the All In Challenge, a program which raised nearly $60 million to benefit Meals on Wheels, No Kid Hungry and America's Food Fund, which is directly benefiting Feeding America and World Central Kitchen to help those in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. But she hadn't considered the possibility of winning.
“I thought it was spam," Dorso, who lives in Fairfield County, Connecticut, told MLSsoccer.com. "I totally did. I looked at it, I told my wife that, too.”
Once her skepticism subsided and it started to hit her that it was really happening, it was her name pulled out of a random drawing, Dorso, together with her wife Emily and daughter Ella, 16, couldn't contain her elation
“I’m super excited," Dorso said. "I keep telling everyone whether they want to hear about it or not. ... It’s really cool. Someone thought up this great trip and I was lucky enough to win it.”
Maria Dorso holding the official MLS match ball – with her signature – alongside her wife, Emily | Courtesy Maria Dorso
Dorso got into soccer through Ella, when her daughter started playing local soccer. She enjoyed what she was watching and casually got into the U.S. women's national team, MLS and more. As just a neutral fan of the game, she hadn't thought much about a favorite team.
But recently she endeavored to cast her MLS fandom.
"I'm such a nerd," she said with a laugh, unspooling her process of choosing a team, one that eventually led her to Orlando City SC.
"I started thinking about how it was my daughter‘s playing soccer, and then our watching the women’s national team play and win that really fueled my enjoyment of watching soccer," she continued. "I really like that the owners of Orlando City have also invested in women’s professional soccer. I recognize a handful of female athletes on Orlando Pride, and by association recognized Dom Dwyer’s name [husband of USWNT star Sydney Leroux]. So, I am choosing Orlando men's and women’s teams as 'my' teams."
Whether or not Dwyer or any of his teammates make the All-Star squad next year remains to be seen.
The package comes with four tickets and that final spot is open for grabs among Dorso's friends.
“My wife Emily and my daughter Ella are coming. So that’s three. I don’t know who the lucky fourth will be. I might have to make everybody be really nice to me.”
