Nickname(s) Atlas, The Greeks Founder Tom Laris Owner Tom Laris | Ground Capacity 1,000 Chairman George Mellis Founded 1941 | |
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Full name New York Greek American Atlas Astoria Soccer Club Stadium Metropolitan Oval,
Maspeth, New York League Cosmopolitan Soccer League Grounds Metropolitan Oval, Maspeth | ||
Greek American Atlas Astoria, commonly known as New York Greek American, is an American soccer team from New York City that currently plays in the Cosmopolitan Soccer League. The club was formed in 1941 by Thomas Laris and is one of the most successful clubs in America's annual national soccer tournament, the U.S. Open Cup, winning four times, in 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1974. The team is one of the oldest American soccer clubs in existence and plays its games at the Metropolitan Oval in Maspeth, Queens.
Contents
History
Greek American Atlas Astoria, formally New York Greek American Atlas Astoria Soccer Club, was formed in 1941. The club was founded by Greek-American Tom Laris and would go on to become one of the most successful and longest continually operating teams in American soccer history. The club has a long-standing rivalry with New York's Cypriot team and fellow multiple National Cup champion, the Pancyprian Freedoms.
The team currently plays in the 5th tier of the American soccer pyramid, under the USASA in the Cosmopolitan Soccer League. The club plays out of the Metropolitan Oval in Maspeth, Queens and has been a perennial contender in the league, winning five of eleven Eastern New York Championships between 2001 and 2012.
National Cup success
The Greek Americans have won America's nationwide domestic soccer tournament, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, formerly the National Challenge Cup, four times in its history, from 1967 to 1969 and in 1974. The club is one of only two teams, alongside the Seattle Sounders FC, to have won the annual tournament on three consecutive occasions.
While the club had not qualified for the Open Cup since 2005, it returned to the tournament in 2012 but lost in the first round to Reading United of the USL's Premier Development League (PDL), by a score of 2-1.
The Greeks won re-entry to the Open Cup again in 2014 thanks to their USASA Amateur Cup regional championship, being seeded in the second round. They won their first game against PDL opponents, Ocean City Nor'easters, 2-0. before falling to Richmond Kickers in the 3rd round. In 2014, after appearing in three consecutive National Cup finals, Atlas would finally lift the trophy for the first time in their history after defeating Guadalajara FC 4-2 in the final.
Team honors
Roster
FIRST TEAM 01. Balsamo, Marco 02. Calvanese, Lorenzo 03. Camacho, Christian 04. Figueiredo, Patrick 05. Firth, Elliott 06. Flatebo, Marius 07. Herrera, Daniel 08. Huerfano, Andres 09. Johnson, Bradley 10. Kamara, Victor 11. Kpene, Guyralond 12. Lopez, Frank 13. Marcu, Adam 14. Marcu, Benjamin 15. Maseko, Luke 16. Moyes, Calvin 17. N'Guessan, Kouassi Sylvain 18. Otto, Ansger 19. Pellegino, Vincent 20. Pozhar, Oleksandr 21. Riego, Gustavo 22. Ruesgen, Joseph 23. Simos, Jon 24. Thomatos, Georgios 25. Vinberg, Sean 26.Williams, Dylan 27. Zehner, Thomas
RESERVES 01. Alissandratos, Gerasimos 02. Antonopoulos, Dimitri 03. Athanasopoulos, Elefterios 04. Canaj, Enea 05. Dimitropoulos, Andrew 06. Dimitropoulos, Elias 07. Evans, Kimani 08. Famularo, John 09. Gagliano, Mario 10. Gibson, Careme 11. Jones, Romario 12. Kapper, Christian 13. Mckenzie, Oniel 14. Mercado, Diego 15. Nissirios, Emmanuel 16. Ohora, Owen 17. Ramirez, Sebastian 18. Schweitzer, Alexander 19. Trivino, Christian 20. Vowinkel, Matthew