On a small cement field in Valencia, Spain, thirteen boys stand in a huddle waiting as two captains choose their teams for the upcoming pick-up soccer game. Among the group stand Nico and Andres Pascual-Leone, hoping they are picked for the same team. However, if they aren’t, it’s all right, it’s still a game of soccer.

Nico, a senior, and Andres, a freshman, have been playing soccer their entire lives. The sport has become a passion in the Pascual-Leone household. The family, who lives in Wayland, spends their summers at their home in Valencia, Spain, the town where Nico learned to play.

The small cement field plays host to the daily soccer game for the local boys.

“I just find it funny playing in Spain because it’s supposed to be a closed space for the people in the town, but people come from all over, and if we don’t have numbers we let them play,” explained Andres.

When they do allow kids from other towns to play, it turns into a “turf war.”

“If the kids who aren’t supposed to be there do show up, we’ll play against them, and those games can get real chippy,” said Nico.

For the first time, not counting on the streets of Spain, the duo will be on the same soccer team. Nico is one of the WHS varsity team captains, while Andres is a starting midfielder. The two believe that playing together for so long has taught them a lot about how the other plays.

“Every day we see each other playing, so we know each other’s games. Now that we’re playing together, we know what the other is going to do, so we don’t really need to talk, we just kinda feel it,” said Nico.

However, when talk is needed on the field, it is usually done in Spanish. At home, Nico says his family speaks a combination of English and Spanish.

“There are words that come out only in Spanish, and words that come out only in English. One time I was trying to ask my mom for a popsicle, but I usually only say popsicle in Spanish, so I was trying to think of it in English, but I really couldn’t figure it out,” said Nico.

Both boys also play soccer outside of the WHS team, for Mass Premier Soccer (MPS). The team practices two times a week and plays up to three games a weekend, all around New England. Both boys say the support of their parents and sister has been amazing.

“Our dad is a big soccer player too, so he’s always pushed us to get better,” said Andres.

Not only does their father, Alvaro, encourage them to push themselves, but as the youngest in the family, Andres is constantly trying to impress, and even play better than, his brother. The latter is extremely hard.

“When he scores, like in Canton, while he was falling back, that was, wow,” said Andres.

Nico, however, has already been impressed by his younger brother, who he describes as bigger and stronger than himself as a freshman.

“One time, right as I finished a game, I looked over to Andres’ field and he took a free kick from half, and it hit the post, and it went in,” said Nico. “I could never do that.”

While playing on opposing teams, the two battle for bragging rights. They both agree that the other will do whatever it takes to win. Andres, the more physical of the two, tries to make it impossible for his brother to even get control of the ball.

“Well he’s faster than me, so, well on the cement field it’s hard to be chippy; I just kinda push him, but not too much because he’s bigger, but on grass I just try to kick him,” said Andres, as the two shared a laugh.

The competitiveness doesn’t get left behind in Spain. From video games, to practicing shots in the backyard, to one on one games in their basement, neither Pascual-Leone wants to lose. Although some may see the time they spend in their backyard as play, the two see it as work, and another opportunity to push each other.

“I’ll say, ‘I’ll hit the top left corner, I’ll bet you five bucks I can hit it.’ If I don’t make it he’ll say, ‘OK give me five if I hit it’ and we just do fun challenges like that,” said Nico.

Some backyard sessions are a little more serious than others.  Andres recalls one in particular in which their father got involved.

“We were both struggling with free kicks and our dad grabbed this big piece of wood and we cut human figures out of it and made a wall,” described Andres. “We spent the whole afternoon trying to curve the ball around them.”

No matter which way you spin this ball, one thing is for sure: the Pascual-Leone brothers are going to be doing some serious damage together on the soccer field this fall.