Pittsburgh Area Teams Win US Futsal Regional Championships And along the way give Pittsburgh Area Soccer National Recognition

New York, NY - 2/13-16 - The Pittsburgh Area has for years experienced growth in soccer as to numbers of teams and participants. The soccer playing public in the greater Pittsburgh area has grown steadily since the 70's. Futsal The FIFA approved version of Indoor Soccer has been played here sine 1986. For many years Futsal in this area and in the country as a hole has struggled for its place and recognition.

Now after many challenges including an initial lack of support from the US Soccer community and the direct challenge of the "Off the Wall Dasher Board Game", MISL and various other indoor Pro Leagues Futsal is gaining traction, and the Pittsburgh area is in on the ground floor.

FIFA the powerful international governing body of all soccer now sees Futsal as its fastest growing version of soccer. Leagues and Clubs are popping up across the country. The Pittsburgh Area despite some impressive individual and team performances in outdoor soccer at the youth and adult level has not established itself has a hotbed for quality soccer. Futsal however despite its small initial numbers has been making Pittsburgh a well known and talked about location for game in conversations across the country...

These statements were reinforced Presidents Day Weekend at the US Futsal Federations Northeast Regional Tournament in New York City. The Pittsburgh area sent 16 teams to the 180 team competition In New York. Each year USFF stages 6 to 8 Regional competitions across the US. The top 2 finishers in each age sex category go on the US Futsal National Championship's in the summer. This years Regional again were hotbeds of intense competition and Pittsburgh teams rose to the occasion winning 3 Regional titles. The information on these titles is listed below.


Foothills Wins U11g's Regional Championship

Pittsburgh, Pa - 2/20/2009 - Soccer in New York City - what could be more exciting?!

The Foothills 97/98 Girls team played in the 2009 Northeast Regional Futsal Championship at City College in New York over President's Day weekend. As if going undefeated in pool play, as well as in the semifinal and final matches, beating the New Jersey, New York, Maryland and PA East State Cup champions along the way wasn't enough, the girls had the opportunity to enjoy the city itself!
Visiting Times Square, the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty, riding the subway, shopping on the street, seeing a show, dining at ESPN Zone and taking a detour through Harlem were all on the list of activities, but bringing home the Regional Cup really made the weekend trip perfect. Coach Steve Bradnam and the girls will now be heading to the National Futsal Championship in Baltimore, Maryland in July to hopefully make Western PA even more proud. But for now, they can bask in the glory of their hard-fought wins for the Championship, although if you ask any of them about the trip, you'll hear more about the man with the "Sharpie® drawn" mustache than any of the forty goals they scored!
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Pittsburgh Supremacy Futsal wins U19b Division of US Futsal Regional

Pittsburgh, Pa - 2/20/2009 -

This past weekend a U-19 Boys team from Pittsburgh won the 2009 Regional Futsal Tournament for the first time ever. The Pittsburgh Supremacy won the tournament at Hunter College in New York City by defeating teams from New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. Futsal is a scaled down indoor soccer game played by teams of 5 players per team on a basketball sized open field. The Pittsburgh Supremacy team players are Sammy Colosimo, Tyler Danzey, Alex Danzey, Tyler Fabian, Shane Hallet, Tim Nyguen, and Goal Keeper Marco Sciulli. Coincidentally, the Championship game pitted The Supremacy against another team from Pittsburgh, The Pittsburgh 6, the first time two local U-19 teams have ever played each other in a final in the history of the competition.
The Supremacy will now advance to the National Championship to be held in Baltimore, Maryland beginning July 16, 2009. If they win in Baltimore, they will be invited to compete at the International level at a location and time to be determined.


Century United U16 Boys Win Northeast Regional Futsal Tournament

Pittsburgh, Pa - 2/20/2009 - .The Century United U16 Boys continued
the winning tradition of Western Pennsylvania Futsal in Regional and
National Futsal events by capturing the U16 Boys Northeast Regional
Futsal Championship in New York City over the President's Day Weekend.
The team won all of their games in their bracket while outscoring their opponents 22-12 and then defeated last year's U15 Boys National
Futsal Champions, LSTS Futsal, 3-2 in overtime in the championship game.
During the championship game, the team took an early 1-0 lead on Matt Walbert's goal and fell behind 2-1 early in the second half before Ryan Luffey tied the game with 4 minutes remaining. Cody Barnhart scored the game-winning goal 1 minute into the
5-minute overtime period and the team hung on to the lead as time expired. The springboard to this championship was last year's semi-finalist finish in the Northeast Regional Futsal Championship in Boston as a U15 team playing in the U16 division.

The Century United U16 Boys have played in West Penn Futsal
Association's Keystone Indoor Kicks High School Boys Divison of the
Prime Futsal League the past two years, competing against teams that
are 2 and 3 years older. The high speed of play and high skill level exhibited by the competition in the upper age group have presented challenges that have contributed greatly to the team's development and enabled them to be competitive against the best teams in their age group in the northeast. Players on the roster include the team's goalie, Parker Ulrich (Peters); midfielder Cody
Barnhart, defender Anthony Russo, and forward Roman Vukmanovich (all from Brooklin); and forward/midfielder Kurt Koeppl, forward Ryan Luffey, defender Nick Vecchio, and midfielder Matt Walbert (all from South Park). Coaches Don Luffey and Gary Walbert established the team in 2002 with 4 of the boys on the current team when they were U10 players.






Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com