By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association
June 4, 2014-In the Boys-Under-12 Small-Sided State Open Cup final between two Cosmopolitan Junior Soccer League (CJSL) teams, Kosmos Greek-Americans of Queens shut out Downtown United from Manhattan, 3-0. The 8 vs. 8 game for supremacy in the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) was played on Saturday, May 31 at Stringham Park in LaGrange.
“As First Vice President of the Cosmopolitan Junior Soccer League, I’m very proud that two teams from our league made the final,” said Kosmos coach Andreas Touros. “And I’m very proud to have faced Gustavo Palomino as the opposing coach as he played for me as a young man when I coached the Hellenic-American Soccer League Under-21 All-Star Team in 1994.”
Dino Nicolaou scored two goals for Kosmos while Richie Debrosse, who played most of the game in net, added an insurance goal. The other Kosmos keeper, Mo Hamza, shared the shutout as well.
“We had a couple more opportunities to score. We played a very nice team in a very clean game,” commented the other Kosmos coach, Nick Nicolaou. “I think we played a little bit better but the score should have been 1-0 or 2-0 as the other team played very well too.”
Kosmos received a $2,000 check from Eastern New York to defer the costs of playing in the Regionals from June 26 to July 1 in Kingston, Rhode Island.
Downtown United received the Howard Rubenstein Sportsmanship Award as selected by the match officials. Now retired, Mr. Rubenstein was seemingly involved in every facet of New York soccer for decades and is a member of the Halls of Fame of Eastern New York, the US Amateur Soccer Association and the Long Island Junior Soccer League.
With 123,843 youth soccer players––68,587 boys and 55,256 girls––and more than 25,000 volunteers, the non-profit Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) stretches from Montauk Point, Long Island to the Canadian border. Members are affiliated with 11 leagues throughout the association, which covers the entire state of New York east of Route 81. ENYYSA exists to promote and enhance the game of soccer for children and teenagers between the ages of 5 and 19 years old, and to encourage the healthy development of youth players, coaches, referees and administrators. All levels of soccer are offered––from intramural, travel team and premier players as well as Special Children. No child who wants to play soccer is turned away. ENYYSA is a proud member of the United States Soccer Federation and United States Youth Soccer Association. For more information, please log on to http://www.enysoccer.com/, which receives nearly 300,000 hits annually from the growing soccer community.