PHILADELPHIA — Another successful Philadelphia International Unity Cup was celebrated last week with an awards banquet at The Discovery Center.
Chris Branscome, CEO of Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer, gave out fair play awards during the event and additional award winners and the two winning teams were recognized.
“We’ve been part of this from the beginning because all of you started like I did as a young player,” Branscome said. “I know so many of you now have children of your own and you work with children in the community. That’s what our goal is to build soccer in the city of Philadelphia.”
Team Ireland won the competition on the men’s side for the first time in the eighth final held at Novacare Complex on Oct. 15. Team USA won the first ever women’s competition earlier that day.
Brianna Banks, who coaches youth at Kensington Soccer Club and has played professionally, led Team USA to the first women’s title.
“We got to finally put our bodies and our feelings and emotions into what the men experienced the last few years,” Banks said. “We always watched the games, never got to experience them so it was really great.”
Fair Play Awards
Women: Group A – Guatemala, Group B – Honduras
Men: A – Ireland, B – Portugal, C – Dominican Republic, D – Vietnam, E – Liberia, F – Turkey, G – Greece, H – England, I – France, J – Angola, K – Ghana, L – Belarus, M – Sierra Leone, N – Ethiopia, O – Kyrgyzstan, P – Morocco.
Overall winners Portugal for Men
Daniel Yallah Sportsmanship Award
Daniel Ijigu, Team Ethiopia
Golden Glove Award
Nicole Colley, Team USA
Prince Monyan, Team Liberia
Golden Boot Award
Evelyn Ventura Garcia, Team Mexico
Nathan Karmbor, Team Liberia