At least once a week for the last 10 months, the members of Haitian soccer club Violette AC, based in Port-au-Prince, have gathered at a hotel or a player’s home to sit in a circle and listen.

What’s said isn’t always loud, and very often has nothing to do with soccer. But the sound of honest, open conversation between teammates is enough to drown out the noise of gunfire and violence inside a country that is on the brink of a “humanitarian disaster.”

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Haiti has been dealing with violence, especially among gang-led organizations, for some time, and that tension has only elevated since the killing of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. Doctors Without Borders has been forced to close a hospital in the capital due to the violence, and a recent United Nations report on the situation caused a UN official to liken some areas of the country to “a living nightmare.”

In their team meetings, Violette’s players, mostly unknown to the soccer world, have found a way to lean on one another through all of that turmoil. 

This past week, they’ve finally had a chance to lean on each other on the field, to stunning effect.

In what is almost certainly the most shocking result in CONCACAF Champions League history, Violette AC defeated Austin FC of MLS 3-2 on aggregate in the CONCACAF Champions League round of 16, following a 2-0 win by Austin in the United States on Tuesday. That result follows last week’s 3-0 upset in the first leg of the home-and-home series.

In just about every conceivable facet, there are stark differences between the sides. Austin FC finished fourth in the MLS regular season standings last season, while Violette hadn’t played a competitive game in 290 days before playing Austin because Haiti’s domestic competition, Ligue Haïtienne, has been suspended indefinitely. According to Transfermarkt, the approximate total value of Austin FC’s squad is a shade over $50 million. For Violette, it’s around $150,000. Austin FC plays its games at the gleaming, 20,738-capacity Q2 Stadium, opened in 2021 at a cost of around $260 million. Violette’s home game against Austin was played in the Dominican Republic due to the violence in Haiti.

In Tuesday’s second leg, Austin FC outshot Violette 33-3, giving the MLS side a 40-14 advantage over both legs. The Texans were on the attack almost from the opening whistle, pressuring Violette into turnovers, firing shots from all manner of angles, and often barely missing the target. Two goals were called back – one for a handball in the build-up and another fairly obvious offside decision. Austin FC was also denied a penalty kick in the second half after striker Gyasi Zardes was tackled in the box, resulting in a VAR check that lasted six-plus minutes. Throughout it all, Violette’s players scrapped with their opponents, bravely lept in the way of incoming shots or onrushing attackers, and, yes, took every opportunity possible to milk the clock which resulted in 10 minutes of stoppage time. 

When those had elapsed, jubilation was evident.

🔵⚪️ @VACHAITI makes history and advances to the next round of #SCCL23!

Its opponent will be the winner between @clubleonfc and @TauroFC !

— Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League (@TheChampions) March 15, 2023

“We went through a lot, man, we went through a lot,” an emotional captain Steeven Saba told TV cameras after the final whistle. “We didn’t have our best players, we fought and fought and fought. This means a lot to us….We’re not going to stop fighting, no matter what comes our way. We’re doing this for our country, we’re doing this for the boys at home, the seven, eight boys that couldn’t come with us.”

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Saba was referring to yet another disadvantage Violette had to overcome: visa issues which depleted the squad that had earned that 3-0 advantage in the first place. 

Violette’s players had acknowledged before the second leg that not every member of the team had been granted a visa for entry into the United States due to the ongoing issues in Haiti. It wouldn’t be the first time similar issues impact a Haitian team in the competition – last year, Léogâne’s Cavaly FC had to withdraw from its matchup with the New England Revolution after failing to secure enough visas for a traveling party.

A source with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter told The Athletic before the second leg that 15 players obtained visas, with several more that were still processing. CONCACAF said it “received assurances from AC Violette that the club has obtained more than the required number of visas for first-team players to travel and compete.”

“Some of the players who didn’t get visas are really important to us,” midfielder Shad San Millan said before the game. “If we have to go with just 12 players, we’re still going to put our hearts into the game.”

As it turned out, Violette dressed a squad of just 14 players – with no backup goalkeeper included. A total of twelve players (five starters and six substitutes) who dressed in the first leg didn’t make the trip. Violette made up the numbers with four additional players, including two from New Jersey amateur side FC Motown who had a history with the club and were signed on a short-term basis.

“The players showed that no matter the adversity we are facing, they need to keep going, they need to be strong to face these challenges,” Violette team manager Webens Prinsimé told media after the second leg. “The players, we keep them of the mind that they can win this competition. We know that we have a lot of good teams in this competition, but the players have to trust that they can do everything on the field.”

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Still, no one on Violette is immune to the devastation in Haiti. Friends and family being displaced is a common occurrence.

That’s why, instead of quickly making their way home once training obligations are finished, Violette players remain close to each other and talk.  

Saba is hesitant to call the team discussions therapy, but the floor is open for players to share what’s on their minds.

“To know how someone feels, do they have any pain in some way, we want to be there to help them,” Saba told The Athletic. 

Violette represents not just Haiti, but the entire Caribbean in the CONCACAF Champions League, as the only team from the region to qualify for the round of 16, and now for the quarterfinals. They are supposed to be “a family,” said Saba. Their goal is not just to compete in makeshift fields that look nothing like pristine stadiums such as Austin’s. Their goal is to “be here for one another.”

“It’s true, there are a lot of problems in Haiti, and that doesn’t give us any advantages,” San Millan said. “But we’ve always said we can compete with the best in the world.”

This is the story of what it takes to do just that.

As Violette boarded a bus headed across the Haitian border for the Dominican Republic, players understood what kind of odds they were given to succeed against Austin FC. The civil unrest meant that they could not play the first leg of their home-and-away aggregate series in Haiti and instead were forced to host a game an eight-hour bus drive away at Estadio Cibao, which featured a large tree that hung over one of the goals.

I want to know everything there is to know about this giant tree behind Violette's goal at the Estadio Cibao in the Dominican Republic.

— Joseph Lowery (@joeclowery) March 7, 2023

From the outset, it felt like the kind of game Austin, with experienced MLS players, should have won in a landslide.

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But in the months leading up to the match, with no other competitive games on the schedule, the message from Violette’s coaching staff was uniform: the team had to be aggressive. Opportunities like the one in front of them wouldn’t come again, if at all. If they didn’t try to impose their will upon Austin with consistent energy, they believed they’d be letting down family and friends across the border in Haiti.

“Every time Haitian people hear good news about Haitian soccer, it makes them happy,” said San Millan. “It’s a privilege for us to make them happy.”

The violence plaguing Haiti means Ligue Haitienne has not had a full season since 2021. Violette was crowned champions that season, which qualified them for the 2022 Caribbean Club Championship. Throughout that nine-day tournament in May 2022, Violette completed multiple come-from-behind wins before winning the tournament on penalties.

The final took place on May 22, 2022. It was the last competitive match they played before their win over Austin. Austin FC played 25 games in that same stretch.

Technically, Violette’s players are professionals. But having second jobs is necessary in a country with a per capita GDP of $1,664, according to 2021 estimates from the United Nations. That number is the lowest of any country in the Americas. Saba, the captain, works in a hardware store that has been owned by his family for two generations. And when San Millan returns home from training, he hits the books. Champions League games or not, the 18-year-old is still a few credits shy of the requirements for a high school diploma.

“My mom is a teacher, and she’s pretty strict with school,” San Millan said.

And so since qualifying in May 2022, through the nearly 300 days of waiting and not playing, and watching as their home falls deeper and deeper into uncertainty, the opportunity to change the perception of Haitian football was one they welcomed with eager anticipation.

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“That’s literally how life is for us,” said Saba. “You just never have to stop believing.”

The team has learned that even in the muggy heat, it’s better to train in the morning and avoid training in the evening at all costs. Some players live hours away from Port-au-Prince and asking them to travel in the dark is a threat to their safety.

Training sessions have sometimes been cut short as riots broke out nearby.

“There would be chaos in the streets and we’d have to run back home,” San Millan said. “I always prayed for my teammates that we’d be able to get back home after training.”

As the first game against Austin drew closer, the team meetings intensified. There were fears, at first from some corners of the dressing room, about the team being embarrassed.

Those feelings only lasted for so long. They’d stayed positive throughout such turmoil over the past few years in Haiti, why would an upcoming match necessitate feelings of, well, anything but that same positivity?

San Millan acknowledged that while constant league games might have improved the team physically, it was the constant discussions the team had about their future that benefitted them mentally.

“Everyone not only stayed positive,” San Millan said, “but everyone also pushed each other.”

As a veteran member of the Haitian national team, Saba has seen what the power of positive self-belief can bring. Saba was on the field when Haiti came back from 2-0 down to upset a talented Canadian national team in the 2019 Gold Cup quarterfinals and was on the field just days later when Mexico, the titans of the region, needed a 93rd-minute penalty to finally beat Haiti.

So his message to his team, even minutes before they walked onto the field against Austin, was consistent: “We have to be there for one another.”

“Whether you’re experienced or not, the ball is round for everyone,” Saba said.

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On match day, Violette’s players looked out into the stands as they took the field and saw, at best, dozens of people watching. But they thought of family and friends back home.

“For the people that have been suffering, of course, they’re very proud of us,” San Millan said.

When Violette striker Miche-Nader Chery leapt up above Austin center back Amro Tarek and headed home the opening goal of the tournament just 13 minutes in, they thought of their families.

They thought of their friends as they kept coming at Austin in waves, showing the kind of energy the visitors lacked with overlapping run after overlapping run. Just 26 minutes after their opening goal, when Chery again leapt inexplicably high to get a head on his second goal, the towering mountain in front of them seemed like it could be scaled.

Nearly 300 days of waiting meant they didn’t slow down after half. Chery nearly completed the hat trick with a header in the 47th minute that was at first saved by Austin goalkeeper Brad Stuver before Tarek bungled a clearing attempt and kicked the ball into his net.

Chery buried his head into the ground in disbelief. Violette had willed a more experienced and well-paid Austin team into submission. A few yards away, Saba shared in that disbelief, but only for a moment.

“Somehow, some way, we’re always ready for whatever comes at us,” Saba said.

Violette players hugged each other tight, smiled and laughed in the center of the pitch. When they returned to their dressing room, coach Rony Attimy swept the team into a swell of emotion with a single message that is still ringing in Saba’s ears, days afterward: “You’re proving what you believed in.”

And that’s what Violette players want those now paying attention to know: There is more to Haiti than what the headlines dictate.

“I’ve been saying it for too long. There’s a lot of talent in Haiti,” Saba said. “But because of how the country is, we go unrecognized.”

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Before the second leg kicked off, Violette would again meet in a circle to remind each other of what they, and perhaps an entire country, are capable of.

“It’s bigger than football for us,” Saba said. “We’re fighting for a whole country.”

(Ed. note: this story, published on Mar. 13, was updated on Mar. 15 after Violette’s 2-0 loss to Austin FC, which advanced the club to the CCL quarterfinals)

(Top photo: Omar Vega/Getty Images))