Sitch team wins 2003 East Coast Cup soccer tournament
ELLENVILLE, N.Y. - The 2003 East Coast Cup soccer tournament was held on July 26-27 at the Ukrainian American Youth Association (SUM) resort in Ellenville, N.Y. The hosts, Yonkers (N.Y.) Krylati, welcomed Newark (N.J.) Chornomorska Sitch, Stamford (Conn.) Levy and Long Island (N.Y.) Vatra to the tournament, which is sponsored by the Ukrainian Sports Federation of the U.S.A. and Canada (USCAK).
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 Mines Advisory Group (MAG) land mine charity (www.magclearsmines.org). Team Manager Slavko Mykosovski scheduled his team's trip to coincide with the U.S. tour of the English professional club soccer team, Manchester United.
The East Coast Cup tournament was formally opened on Saturday morning with comments from Tournament Director Mark Howansky, SUM resort Manager Peter Kosciolek, and Myron Stebelsky, president of the Ukrainian Sports Federation of the U.S.A. and Canada (USCAK). 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 10 games). After the preliminary round, the top two teams 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 44 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 ties, 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 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 "Vidpochynkovyi 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 Andrij Panas anchor the team's back line. Panas continually stifled the Yonkers Krylati attackers, primarily made up of skilled players from Ukraine. The young Sitch squad complemented 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 sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth 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 SUM National Board President Bohdan Harhaj and SUM National Board Sports 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's most valuable player, Christian Pardo of Newark Sitch for top goal scorer, and Vasyl Solomyn of Long Island Vatra for best goalie.
All of the clubs that participated in the 2003 East Coast Cup understand that they share the common goal of promoting Ukrainian sports both within and outside of the Ukrainian community. All the teams exhibited excellent sportsmanship throughout the weekend even while competing fiercely against each other on the field. Players and fans socialized with each other on the sidelines, at the food stand, at the vendors' booths, and most of all, during the dance. Furthermore, a meeting was held during the tournament between representatives from all the clubs, as well as USCAK officials, Mr. Stebelsky (president), Omelan Twardowsky (secretary) and Eugene Chyzowych (soccer director). Among the agenda items decided upon was the creation of an USCAK soccer championship, where the winners of the East Coast Cup and the Great Lakes Cup would play every year to determine the best Ukrainian club 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 Lviv, Chicago Kryla, Detroit Chernyk and Toronto Ukraina. This year Yonkers Krylati traveled to Cleveland and won the Great Lakes Cup.
| Krylati 1 | - | Vatra 0 |
| Sitch 2 | - | Levy 0 |
| Vatra 0 | - | Dynamo 1 |
| Levy 0 | - | Krylati 3 |
| Dynamo 0 | - | Sitch 4 |
| Levy 4 | - | Vatra 0 |
| Sitch 0 | - | Krylati 0 |
| Dynamo 2 | - | Levy 1 |
| Vatra 0 | - | Sitch 0 |
| Krylati 4 | - | Dynamo 1 |
| Team | Points | Wins | Losses | Ties | GF | GA | +/- |
| Yonkers Krylati | 10 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 7 |
| Newark Sitch | 8 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Manchester Dynamo | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 9 | -5 |
| Stamford Levy | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 7 | -2 |
| Long Island Vatra | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | -6 |
| ||
|
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, September 14, 2003, No. 37, Vol. LXXI
| Home Page |