Cosmopolitan League

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Four days after reaching the Manning Cup final with a hard fought 2-0 win over Manhattan Kickers, Pancyprian Freedoms bowed out of the U.S. Men’s National Amateur Cup last Sunday on a rain-lashed Boston field.

Pancyprian left New England feeling hard done by the Fates in a 1-0 loss to Hellenic rivals Boston Olympiakos of the Massachusetts State Soccer League.

Pancyprian GM Lefteris Eliades was surprised that the game went ahead in drenching conditions and on a narrow pitch with old school artificial turf.

“The goal they scored was a gift from us – the goalie (Stefanos Kazantzis) went up to catch the ball and it slipped through his fingers,” he said of Olympiako’s 44th minute winner.

Eliades wasn’t pleased either that he lost his most potent scoring threat, Julio DoSantos with a rib injury in the 50th minute.
“They were not a good team. They were very, very physical,” he charged.
DoSantos and Savvas Theofilou had earlier been on target against Kickers at St John’s University to put the Greek-Cypriots in the Manning final on June 4.

Pancyprian will dispute the State cup with Long Island Soccer Football League (LISFL) powerhouse Irish Rovers, 1-0 victors over Mark Semioli’s New York Athletic Club in the other semi-final last week.

NYAC SLUMP
NYAC’s loss to Rovers snapped an unbeaten run by the six-time CSL champs going back to early November when they crashed 4-2 to Brooklyn Italians.
And often when it rains, it pours. In the league three days later, Amir Aliyev (30th, 35th) hit a quick brace at Travers Island as the Italians completed the double over NYAC with a 2-0 decision.

KANDIA RELEGATED
The result left NYAC second from the bottom (4-5-4, 16) in Division One (East), seven points ahead of Kandia whose 3-1 defeat by Polonia at Evander Childs High School sealed their relegation.
“We’ll have to do a lot of rebuilding. We played too many over-35s,” said Kandia coach Colin Hemmings, already plotting the Jamaicans’ return to the top flight.

GREEK DOUBLE
New York Greek-American/Atlas could do no wrong against New York Albanians in both the league and cup.
The prolific Chris Megaloudis and Eran Shalom each struck twice in a 4-0 romp over Albanians’ first team at Fox Lane High School, and this after another Megaloudis brace for the reserves had blanked Albanians’ seconds 2-0 in the D’Arpino Cup semis at Cardoza High School.
“He’s moving on to the Rough Riders,” Atlas coach Lucio Russo said of the 22 year-old Megaloudis.

SHAMROCK WILT
Greek-Atlas’ D’Arpino Cup final opponents will be New Hyde Park. The LISFL side pipped Metro Div. 2 Shamrock 1-0 at the Verrazano Sports Complex in the other semi.

ROVERS SAFE
Stash Rutwokaski and Kieran Mahon, with his first ever goal for the club, all but guaranteed Barnstonworth Rovers’ First Division future in a 2-0 win over CD Iberia at Icahn Stadium.
Iberia’s spirits weren’t done any good by the loss of Kevin Moo-Young with a fractured arm.
“Rovers totally outplayed us and deserved the victory,” said Tony Russo. “It was tough to stay mentally focused after we lost Kevin to such a terrible injury. We just hope that (he’ll) be OK.”
The reserves tied 1-all.

BHOYS DROP
Barnstonworth’s victory and Lansdowne Bhoys’ forfeit to Kickers at New Utrecht, virtually sealed the last place Irishmen’s return to the Second Division from the West.

WHITE KNIGHTS
Malik Ashiru (two), Tony DeLorenzo, Lars Berg and Naldo shot Central Park Rangers ‘White’ four points clear atop the Second Division log with a 6-0 shellacking of Astoria Gaels at the Metropolitan Oval.
CPR (10-3-1, 31) had their promotion hopes boosted by Manhattan Celtic’s 7-1 stunner over second place Banatul at the Verrazano Complex.

Anthony Campbell, who also connected in the Celtic reserves’ 4-0 romp, struck four goals, with Gleb Privalov, Howard Grandison and Omer Nayan adding one apiece.
Also at Verrazano, Mike Sieman was on target for CPR ‘Red’ in a 2-1 loss to NIFA, whose reserves won by the same scoreline.

ROOSEVELT POINTER
Dixon Hayes (90th) snatched a late equalizer for Roosevelt Island International in a dramatic 2-2 tie with Koha at Red Hook that saw all four goals come in the last ten minutes.
Tofol Vives (80th) put Roosevelt ahead only for Ismet Gilaj (82nd) and Bledar Rhaci (85th) to hit back for Koha. However, Roosevelt, who are beginning to show a pulse late in the season, could not be denied and Hayes fired home to steal a point for the Division Two stragglers.
Koha’s reserves prevailed 4-0.

BULGARIAN FIGHT-BACK
Nine-man FC Bulgarian rallied back from 2-1 down to hold Clarkstown 2-2 at Kennedy/Zukor Field and cling onto the Metro Div. 1 leadership.
Stefan Dimitrov (90th) leveled on the stroke of full time after Hristo Kaloferov (44th) had pulled one back.
“Hell of a game. They’re a very tough team to play against,” said Bulgaria’s ex-striker turned goalie Koko Veltchev.

RIDGEWOOD CLOSE IN
Second place Ridgewood (10-3-1, 31) inched within two points of Bulgaria after blanking New York Wanderers 4-0 at McCarran Park.
Danut Anton’s ice-breaker (16th) was followed by a Gheorghe Radulescu hat trick (10th, pen., 30th, 55th).
In other Metro Div. 1 action at McCarran, SC Ukrainians routed Bergen Kickers 6-0, courtesy of Piotr Brzezinki, Giancarlo Scuderi, Alex Diaz, Blondy DeShong (two) and Piotr Kurezyna, while Homenetmen knocked off Stal Mielec 3-1.
Shant Simonian (30th), Steve Hazarian and Mihran Papazian (80th) were on target for Homenetmen. Piotr Sokolowski replied for Stal.
“If I had the whole team, I’d win more games. For the first time all season I had 15 players,” boosted Homenetmen boss Garo Anastasian.

McCARTHY COLLAPSE
Elsewhere in Metro Div. 1, ASA McCarthy coughed up a 3-1 lead to lose 4-3 in a seven-goal thriller with BW Gottschee at Queens Children’s Hospital.
Scott Capuzzo (15th), Brendan Watkins (35th) and Jon Davidson (60th) had McCarthy cruising.
“Then they put in the next three (goals). We got tired, I guess,” said John Cassidy.
Raul Rodriguez (88th) nicked it for Gottschee after earlier strikes by Pablo LaCruz (75th), Fabritzo Castro (80th pen.), and Hugo Correa (25th).

PARTIZANI EFFORT
FC Partizani also pulled off a remarkable comeback against Metro Div. 2 title hopefuls Gotham Argonauts at Wards Island, crawling out of a 2-0 hole to tie 2-2 all.
Pirro Cecaj (70th) and an Istvan Bordas free kick (80th) canceled out goals by Gotham’s Tadhg Ó Fátharta -- off a Nick Raudenski through ball -- and Ronnie Swinkles.

Said Raudenski: “Even professional footballers call a 2-nil lead ‘the worst lead in football’ because just one goal against and the other team is right back in it. Well that's what happened to Gotham. Clearly undeserving tie but that's football for you.”
Said Partizani’s Eni Zejnati: “We expected a stronger Gotham team after seeing them beat Guyana -- and after losing to them 8-0 in the first meeting.”
Gotham (7-3-3, 24) stayed five points behind leaders New York City Infinity All-Stars who beat CD Iberia 4-0. TAMEF dispatched New York Wanderers 2-0 while 8 Mile Creek were forfeit winners over OMM, in other Metro. Div. 2 results.

GUYANESE MASTERS
Pele Masters and their countrymen Guyana Veterans ‘B’ remained joint first in ‘B’ Division East on the 28-point mark after both won big.
Pele, who have a better goal average, thrashed BW Gottschee 6-0 at Randalls Island on goals by John Paul Pierre-Louis (two), Glendon George, Joel Wickham, Wesley Baynes and Dexter Deterville.
Guyana ‘B’ hammered Westchester FC 8-1 at the same ground.

GUYANA MASTERS II
Guyana Veterans ‘A’ also won handsomely in the Over-30 division. They beat Barnstonworth Rovers ‘B’ 5-2 at Verrazano, with Gordon Whiteside and Paul Rochester (penalty) on the mark for Rovers.
“We only had 11 players and one or two of those were carrying injuries. We battled well in the first half, but tired as the game went on,” explained Rovers official Dave Sheeran.
Barnstonworth Rovers ‘A’, meanwhile battled to a goalless tie with SC Gjoa.

HOLMES THWARTED
SC Eintracht’s Torsten Holmes (53rd) was denied a possible match-winner when SC Brasil notched a 63rd minute equalizer in their 1-1 tie at the Metropolitan Oval.
                                                                    
 

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