Coming off a comprehensive 6-0 win in New Jersey against Scots-American SC last week, the NY Pancyprian Freedoms (NYPF) hosted their in-form rivals NY Greek Americans at Belson Stadium at St. John’s university on Sunday night, April 10th. The thrilling and heated 2-1 win over NY Greek Americans, showed that class and quality of the NYPF players and organization can win every time. The victory marks the ninth consecutive win in the Metropolitan Conference of the Eastern Premier Soccer League (EPSL) spanning back to October 2021 . The NYPF has outscored their opponents 52-9 and included victories over Doxa SC and Lansdowne Yonkers FC.

The NY Greek Americans opened the scoring in the tenth minute through a Mathew Vowinkel strike. The NYPF response came in the 38th minute after Sebastian Ruiz found himself on the end of a delightful ball in behind from Carlton McKenzie, who made no mistake beating the keeper making it 1-1.

The two sides went into halftime deadlocked at one each, however it was the NYPF who came out the more aggressive in search of the all important second goal. The goal would come in the 69th minute after a swift transition from the NYPF forward Joseph Holland won the ball bullishly in the midfield, sprayed it out to McKenzie who squared it to Ruiz, tapping home from a couple of yards out. A huge goal from the boys in blue. The NY Greek Americans understandably threw everything in search of an equalizer in the final 20 minutes but the NYPF stood firm and closed out this pivotal 2-1 win, a job very well done. A derby delight for the NY Pancyprian Freedoms.

“The game was what we expected, a tough one, “ said Panayiotis Onisiforou, Technical Director of the NY Pancyprian freedoms. “But we know what we are capable of, so even going down in the first half ,we still had belief that we could turn the game around. It’s another big step for us going forward.”

This win over the NY Greek American takes the NYPF to 35 points, only one point behind Doxa in first place. With three games left in the season, the next game is on Saturday, April 30th against powerhouse Zum Schneider FC who currently sit in fourth place and are hungry for a win.