By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association
July 11, 2019-The Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) salutes the United States Women’s National Team on winning their second consecutive and fourth overall women’s World Cup. They have won half of the eight Women’s World Cups played.
Eastern New York would like to particularly salute our own Crystal Dunn and Allie Long.
Crystal grew up a short corner kick from the Eastern New York office in Rockville Centre in the Town of Hempstead. She developed her wonderful skills in Eastern New York’s Olympic Development Program (ODP) for six years, and also played for the Rockville Centre Power, Rockville Centre Tornadoes and Albertson Fury ’93 in the Long Island Junior Soccer League (LIJSL), winning a State Cup title with the Power.
The USA team that Crystal was on won the 2012 Under-20 Women’s World Cup and she duplicated that success in France. She also received the 2012 Hermann Award as college soccer’s best player, was the first selection in the 2014 National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) Draft and the 2015 NWSL Most Valuable Player. In the NWSL, Crystal plays for defending champion NC Courage.
The 27-year-old Crystal played defender in six games during the Women’s World Cup and often was given the assignment of marking the opposing team’s best forward.
“Throughout the World Cup, I do feel like people were kind of doubting my ability to play that role,” she told Michael Lewis of Newsday. “I never really doubted myself. I came up against world-class forwards. Outside back is not my primary position, but I’m walking away from this World Cup with my head held high. I think I’ve proven to myself and everybody out there who ever thought I wasn’t fit for the job, I’m a world champion because I am fit for the job.”
Her USA teammate, Allie Long, grew up in East Northport in the Town of Huntington and started playing soccer for the Northport/Cow Harbor Mustangs of the LIJSL. She completed her youth career playing for LIJSL teams Oceanside Express and the Albertson Express, winning four consecutive State Open Cup titles with the Express. Allie used being a member of ODP for five years as a springboard to representing the United States internationally with the US Women’s National Team and Under-23 Team.
In the NWSL, she plays for Reign FC in Washington State.
Allie, 31, played in midfield in the USA’s 3-0 win over Chile in group play.
The champs were celebrated in a ticker tape parade down Manhattan’s Canyon of Heroes on July 10.
With over 100,000 youth soccer players––both boys and girls––and more than 25,000 volunteers, the non-profit Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) stretches from Montauk Point, Long Island to the Canadian border. Members are affiliated with nine leagues throughout the association, which covers the entire state of New York east of Route 81. ENYYSA exists to promote and enhance the game of soccer for children and teenagers between the ages of 5 and 19 years old, and to encourage the healthy development of youth players, coaches, referees and administrators. All levels of soccer are offered––from intramural, travel team and premier players as well as Children With Special Needs. No child who wants to play soccer is turned away. ENYYSA is a proud member of the United States Soccer Federation and United States Youth Soccer Association. For more information, please log onto http://www.enysoccer.com/, which receives nearly 300,000 hits annually from the growing soccer community.