Antonio Rocha (born 21 August 1993) is a former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. Born in the United States, he represented

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

at international level.

Early life

Rocha played

college soccer College soccer, called college football in some countries, is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. While it is most widespread in the United States, it is also prominent in Japan, South Kore ...

at the

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a Private university, private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbyterian Church, although it is now nondenominational, and the campus ...

from 2011 to 2014. For the 2011 season, Rocha was named as the Conference USA Men's Soccer Freshman of the Year. He was selected to the All-Conference USA Third-Team in 2011, 2012, and 2013. In 2014, Rocha was a captain of the

men's soccer team and helped lead the team to a conference championship. Rocha was named to the All-Tournament Team for the 2014 American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament.

Club career

Sporting Kansas City

Rocha was selected by

Sporting Kansas City Sporting Kansas City is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The ad ...

in the fourth round of the

2015 MLS SuperDraft The 2015 MLS SuperDraft was the sixteenth SuperDraft conducted by Major League Soccer. The SuperDraft is held each year in conjunction with the annual National Soccer Coaches Association of America convention. The 2015 convention was held Janua ...

. They cut him prior to the start of the season.

Austin Aztex

On 9 March 2015, Rocha signed with

Austin Aztex The Austin Aztex were a soccer team based in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 2011 as a member of the Premier Development League, the team played the 2015 season in the United Soccer League, the second tier of the United States soccer p ...

for the

2015 USL season The 2015 USL season was the fifth season of the United Soccer League (USL) and the first under its new name (previously the league was called USL Pro). This season represented a substantial expansion from 14 teams in 2014 to 24 teams in 2015, an ...

. This would be the team's final season before dissolving and Rocha was forced to find a new club.

Orlando City B

On 15 October 2015, Rocha became one of the first three players to sign with newly formed

USL USL may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Underground Sound of Lisbon, a Portuguese dance music project * Urban Strawberry Lunch, a band from Liverpool Companies * United Spirits Limited, India * Former United States Lines shipping company C ...

team

Orlando City B Orlando City B (or OCB for short) is an American soccer club that began play in 2016 and currently plays in MLS Next Pro. Owned by Orlando City SC and based at the Orlando City training facility in Kissimmee, the club plays its home games at ...

along with

Mikey Ambrose Michael Ambrose (born October 5, 1993) is an American former professional Association football, soccer player who played as a Defender (association football), defender. Career Early career Ambrose spent four seasons with the FC Dallas, FC Dallas ...

and Kyle Callan-McFadden.

Orlando City

Rocha signed a short-term agreement with Orlando City on 15 June 2016 for a

2016 U.S. Open Cup The 2016 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup was the 103rd edition of the oldest ongoing competition in American soccer. On September 8, 2015 the United States Soccer Federation decided to prevent professional teams that were "majority owned by a higher-l ...

match. On 3 August 2016, Orlando City acquired Rocha's MLS rights from

in exchange for a fourth-round pick in the

2018 MLS SuperDraft The 2018 MLS SuperDraft was the nineteenth SuperDraft conducted by Major League Soccer. As customary, the SuperDraft was held in conjunction with the annual United Soccer Coaches convention. The 2018 UCS was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania b ...

and he was signed to an MLS contract the day after.

Saint Louis FC

Rocha was loaned to

Saint Louis FC Saint Louis FC was an American professional soccer team based in St. Louis, Missouri. The team was founded in May 2014, and competed in the USL Championship. The team played their matches at West Community Stadium, a venue inside the World Wide ...

on 6 April 2018. He returned to Orlando a week later having played twice. At the end of the season the club announced they had not picked up his contract option.

New York City FC

On 12 December 2018, Rocha had his rights acquired by

New York City FC New York City Football Club (often referred to as NYCFC) is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in New York City. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern C ...

in exchange for a

2019 MLS SuperDraft The 2019 MLS SuperDraft was the twentieth SuperDraft conducted by Major League Soccer. The SuperDraft is typically held in conjunction with the annual January United Soccer Coaches convention, which in 2019 was held in Chicago, Illinois. The fi ...

fourth round pick. Rocha scored his first and only goal for the club on 25 October 2020 in a 3–1 win over Montreal Impact. Following the 2021 season, New York City opted to decline their contract option on Rocha.

Orange County SC

On 18 February 2022, Rocha signed with

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a men's professional association football, soccer league in the second tier of the United States soccer league system#Men's leagues, United States league system. It is organized by the United Soccer League (USL) a ...

side

Orange County SC Orange County Soccer Club is an American soccer team based in the Orange County, California city of Irvine. Founded in 2010 as the Los Angeles Blues, the team currently plays in the Western Conference of the USL Championship, the second tier ...

International career

Belize

2019: Debut and CONCACAF Nations League

In September 2019, Rocha was called into

for its

CONCACAF Nations League The CONCACAF Nations League (, ) is an association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its secondary continental tournament for men's senior national teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The tournament takes pla ...

matches against

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

and

Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...

. He made his international debut on 8 September 2019 in Belize's 2–1 loss to Grenada.

2022: Return

On 2 June 2022, Rocha returned to Belize for the

2022–23 CONCACAF Nations League The 2022–23 CONCACAF Nations League was the second season of the CONCACAF Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 41 member associations of CONCACAF. The group phase of the tour ...

. He would play in the first match of

Group B Group B was a set of regulations for Grand tourer, grand touring (GT) cars used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World S ...

against the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

, in which would end in a 2–0 defeat. This was Rocha's final game for the team.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honors

New York City FC *

MLS Cup MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Playoffs. The game is held in November or December and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Confere ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

References

External links

Tulsa Golden Hurricane bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rocha, Tony 1993 births Living people Naturalized citizens of Belize Belizean men's footballers Belize men's international footballers American men's soccer players American people of Belizean descent Sportspeople of Belizean descent Tulsa Golden Hurricane men's soccer players Austin Aztex players Orlando City B players Orlando City SC players Saint Louis FC players New York City FC players Orange County SC players Men's association football midfielders Sporting Kansas City draft picks USL League Two players National Premier Soccer League players USL Championship players Major League Soccer players Sportspeople from Spring, Texas Soccer players from Harris County, Texas 21st-century American sportsmen