Courtesy: Daily Courier


Area team wins national futsal tournament

By Jamie Rankin

DAILY COURIER

Monday, July 30, 2007

Take 10 soccer players from around the Pittsburgh area, add one former professional indoor soccer player to serve as coach, and what do you get? If those 10 players are the Pittsburgh6, you get first place in a national tournament.
The Pittsburgh6 captured first place at the U.S. Futsal Federation National Championship tournament July 15 in Anaheim, Calif. The team is coached by former Pittsburgh Riverhounds player David Flavius and features players from several Western Pennsylvania high schools: Freeport's John Bercik, Woodland Hills' Jordan Eddens, Southmoreland's Kory Kiefer, Franklin Regional's Garrett Laird, Norwin's Mike Liebdzinski, Central Catholic's Rob McCamy, Plum's Evan Phillips, and Gateway's Joe Rajakumar, Scott Scheinberg and Jeff Simmons.

"Amazing, a shock, the best feeling ever, just to be No. 1 in the whole country," Kiefer said of winning the tournament. "You can't believe it at first, and then it sets in."

Futsal is an indoor soccer game which allows four players and a goalkeeper per team to be on the court at a time.

Flavius said the Pittsburgh6 had only a short time to practice, but the team made the most of it.
"We had only one week to practice, so we really went at it that week," he said.

The team earned the right to play in the national tournament after winning the Northeast Regional tournament in February in Downingtown. The Pittsburgh6 went 5-0 at the Northeast Regional tournament, and the team repeated that feat at nationals, despite having to play defending champions MACSA twice.

Flavius said the two squads met in the opening round and the Pittsburgh6 shut out MACSA.

Goalie Scheinberg said in a press release that he knew after that first game that the Pittsburgh6 might do well.

"When we won our first game against last year's defending champs, I knew our team was for real," he said.

The team faced MACSA again in the finals and came away with a second shutout. In fact, the Pittsburgh6 gave up only one goal in the tournament, outscoring opponents, 24-1.

Flavius praised the team's defensive skills and chemistry. All 10, he said, play soccer for the Penns Forest Football Club in addition to their respective high school teams.

Freeport's Bercik was one of those tough defenders, and he said his most memorable moments were those games against MACSA.

"Our first game was our best game," he said. "Definitely the championship game (was memorable). All the fans were there that night; it was packed."



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