While the world's attention turns to Philadelphia's major stadium for World Cup matches, a quieter soccer legacy continues to thrive in the suburb of North Wales, Pennsylvania. There, the Tryzub Ukrainian American Sport Center stands as a testament to how Ukrainian immigrants helped establish soccer as an American sport decades before the game captured mainstream popularity.
On Saturday, June 21, Roman Chuprynyak delivered an impassioned pre-game speech to his team in the locker room at Tryzub. The players, wearing Ukraine's national colors of yellow and blue, prepared to face a local club with roots in Belarus. This was not World Cup competition, but rather amateur league play that continues a 75-year tradition of Ukrainian soccer excellence in the Philadelphia region.
"Everybody calls us Ukis," Chuprynyak said, speaking to NPR. "This club has been proven through time — 75 years it's been here." Chuprynyak immigrated to the United States as a teenager in 2001 and now serves as a coach and athletic director at Tryzub, home to the Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals.
The club's name references the trident, Ukraine's national symbol, and its history reflects a remarkable chapter in American sports. During the 1950s and 1960s, when soccer remained largely overshadowed by football, baseball, and basketball in the United States, the Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals dominated American professional leagues. The team, led by Ukrainian refugees fleeing World War II and Stalin's postwar oppression, won a half-dozen national championships across various professional leagues and convinced major European clubs like Manchester United to play exhibition matches in Philadelphia.
"Nobody cared about [soccer] in the '60s except the Ukrainians and these other ethnic teams," said Yana Pashaeva, who produced a documentary examining Philadelphia's Ukrainian soccer culture. Her film chronicles how club members helped establish the foundation for the modern American soccer movement that gained broader popularity beginning in the 1990s.
Central to this history was Walter Chyzowych, a Ukrainian immigrant who arrived in Philadelphia in 1949. Chyzowych became a star player and established a network of coaching schools and camps throughout the United States. He later managed the U.S. national team and coached top national squads. According to Pashaeva, Chyzowych operated with minimal resources in the early years. "He had to wash the uniforms for the team himself because they just didn't have enough resources to hire someone," she noted.
Eugene Luciw, who serves as Tryzub's spokesman and unofficial historian, describes Chyzowych as the "godfather" of American soccer. Luciw argues that immigrant communities made the current soccer boom possible. "It became what it is as a result of émigré clubs such as us — and specifically us," Luciw said.
Beyond athletics, Tryzub evolved into a cornerstone of Ukrainian cultural identity in Philadelphia. On June 21, while soccer matches proceeded on the pitch, a cultural festival featured children singing Ukraine's national anthem and performing traditional dances in embroidered shirts. The Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble performed for families gathered on the grounds.
"Ukraine's culture and national identity cannot be destroyed," Luciw declared from the stage, before calling for a moment of silence to honor those lost in the war following Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
Father Taras Naumenko, a Ukrainian Orthodox priest who serves as one of Tryzub's team chaplains, observed the festivities from the crowd. Naumenko, himself a passionate goalkeeper who continues to play in a men's league, explained that the club gained renewed significance after Russia's invasion. "It unifies us," he said, gesturing toward families picnicking on the grass. "There are many people in this community who've lost relatives, brothers, nephews, fathers, sons."
Among the players competing that day was Oleksandr "Sasha" Ostapchuk, who arrived in the United States several years ago as the war intensified. Ostapchuk said discovering the Ukrainian community and soccer team in America alleviated his sense of isolation. "I was looking for a good team, so I found Ukrainian national team," he said. "It's so far from Ukraine, so good."
The match on June 21 concluded with a decisive victory for the Ukrainian side, winning four goals to nil before their home crowd. Chuprynyak expressed pride in his club's role in establishing soccer in America and emphasized that Tryzub's deep American roots demonstrate the enduring nature of Ukrainian culture.
"It's a Uki nation, a Uki family," Chuprynyak said. "There's just no letting that go. That's going to stick here forever."
As Philadelphia hosts World Cup matches this summer, the legacy of Ukrainian immigrants who helped build American soccer continues to flourish in North Wales, where generations of players have maintained their cultural heritage while contributing to the sport's growth in their adopted homeland.
