The 2003 East Coast Cup soccer tournament was held on July 26th
and 27th at the Oselia SUM resort in Ellenville, NY. The hosts,
Yonkers (NY) “Krylati”, welcomed Newark (NJ) “Chornomorska Sitch”, Stamford
(CT) “Levy” and Long Island (NY) “Vatra” to the USCAK-sanctioned tournament.
This year, the tournament also included special guests Manchester (England)“Dynamo”,
a team of British Ukrainians touring the United States to raise awareness
for the MAG land-mine charity (www.magclearsmines.org). Manager
Slavko Mykosovski, scheduled his team’s trip to coincide with the U.S.
tour of the English professional soccer team, Manchester United.
The tournament was formally opened on Saturday morning with comments from
Tournament Director Mark Howansky, Oselia SUM Manager Peter Kosciolek, and
USCAK President Myron Stebelsky. Opening ceremonies then concluded with the
playing of the American, British, and Ukrainian national anthems.
The tournament consisted of a preliminary round followed by third place
and championship matches. In the preliminary round robin, all of the five
teams played against each other once (for a total of ten games). After the
preliminary round, the top two finishers played for the championship and the
next two finishers played for third place. Three points were awarded for a
win and one for a tie. All games were 2 x 22 minutes in duration.
The preliminary round finished with Yonkers Krylati atop the group (10 points
–3 wins, 1 tie, 0 losses), followed by Newark Sitch (8 points - 2 wins, 2
ties, 0 losses), Manchester Dynamo (6 points – 2 wins, 0 tied, 2 losses),
Stamford Levy (3 points – 1 win, 0 ties, 3 losses), and Long Island Vatra
(1 point – 0 wins, 1 tie, 3 losses).
In the third place match, Stamford Levy upset Manchester Dynamo by a score
of 4-1. The British team held on until late in the game before eventually
succumbing to the Stamford squad, managed by former seminarian Yurij Strus.
The Manchester team packed with skillfull “footballers”, struggled with the
intense American summer heat throughout the weekend. Their relatively small
squad was further depleted by injuries and exhaustion as the tournament progressed.
Despite not getting the soccer result they had wanted, Manchester Dynamo
returned home a happy bunch, complete with many new friends on this side of
“the pond.” Members of the British team were also kind enough to conduct a
training session for the Sumivtsi who were in Vidpochynkovyj tabir at the
time, providing the youngsters with memories for years to come.
All the fans present will surely agree that the championship match between
Yonkers Krylati and Newark Sitch was one for the ages. Tensions were high,
as the two teams have been local rivals for many years and had played to a
0-0 draw during their preliminary round game the day before. In the tournament
final, the stalemate continued, with neither team being able to break the
other’s defense. The Newark Sitch manager Nick Hordynsky and player/coach
Greg Serheev made the wise decision to have captain AJ Panas anchor the team’s
back line. Panas continually stifled the Yonkers Krylati attackers, primarily
made up from skilled players from Ukraine. The young Sitch squad complimented
their spirited defense with sporadic counterattacks, which kept the Yonkers
captain Mark Howansky busy in his sweeper position.
After playing two scoreless halves and two scoreless overtime periods, the
teams headed to penalty shots. Krylati Goalie Bohdan Protas looked like he
would be the day’s hero after he stopped Sitch’s first penalty shot. But then
in the third round, Krylati lost their advantage when they drilled a shot
off the cross bar. All the remaining shooters were perfect and the regular
five-round shoot-out ended in a 4-4 tie. The shooters continued their flawless
marksmanship throughout the 6th, 7th, 8th,
9th, and 10th sudden-death rounds. It was only when
the last eligible shooters (the team goalies) shot that the deadlock was broken.
Sitch Goalie Marcel Simon guessed correctly with his dive and stopped Protas’
shot. Then despite the extreme pressure, Simon swapped positions with Protas
and proceeded to coolly sink his shot, giving Newark Sitch the tournament
victory!
The Sunday afternoon awards ceremony was presided over by CYM KY President
Bohdan Harhaj and SUM KY Sports Referent Myron Pryjmak. Besides awarding trophies
to the top three team finishers, they also had the honor of presenting trophies
to Alex Demianczuk of Manchester Dynamo for Tournament MVP, Christian Pardo
of Newark Sitch for Best Goal Scorer, and Vasyl Solomyn of Long Island Vatra
for Best Goalie.
All of the clubs who participated in the 2003 East Coast Cup understand
that they share the common goal of promoting Ukrainian sport both within and
outside of the Ukrainian community. All the teams exhibited excellent sportsmanship
throughout the weekend, even while fiercely combating each other on the field.
Players and fans socialized with each other on the sidelines, at the food
stand, at the paraphernalia vendors, and most of all during the zabava! Furthermore,
a meeting was held during the tournament between representatives from all
the clubs as well as USCAK officials Myron Stebelsky (president), Omelian
Twardowsky (secretary), and Eugene Chyzowych (soccer director). Among the
items decided upon was the creation of the USCAK Soccer Championship, where
the winners of the East Coast Cup and the Great Lakes Cup would play ever
year to determine the best Ukrainian soccer team in the United States and
Canada. The Great Lakes Cup is traditionally held on Memorial Day weekend
and rotates between the Ukrainian club hosts of Cleveland (OH) “Lviv”, Chicago
(IL) “Kryla”, Detroit (MI) “Chernyk” and Toronto (Canada) “Ukraina.” This
year, Yonkers Krylati traveled to Cleveland and won the Open Division cup.
As a result, the 2003 USCAK Soccer Championship game will be between Yonkers
Krylati (GLC qualifier) and Newark Sitch (ECC qualifier) at Oselia SUM in
Ellenville, NY on Sunday, August 31st (Labor Day Weekend) at 3pm.
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