Ein prosit to 60 years of soccer
German Village celebrates six decades of playing The Beautiful Game
A get-together celebrating the German Village Soccer Club’s 60th anniversary was capped off with — what else? — more soccer.
After members from the Niagara Fallsbased club’s inaugural team in 1958 cut a commemorative cake and well-wishers finished signing a giant inflated soccer ball, German Village’s current team played Niagara United Celtic in an over-35 game.
In keeping with the festive occasion, Celtic players took the pitch at Oakes Park wearing green German Village sweaters.
When it had its own facility on Garner Road, the cultural organization fielded as many as nine teams, including several youth squads and a women’s over-25 league.
That lineup started to dwindle after the soccer club’s sponsor, the German-Canadian community, sold its facility on Garner Road in Niagara Falls.
“The membership decided to sell the property,” Richard Ludchen, the soccer club’s president, said. “The building was getting old, the membership was getting smaller, the membership was getting older.
“It was time to move on and downsize a little.”
For the past five years, German Village has only one team, an over-35 team competing in the Peninsula Veterans Soccer League.
Ludchen doesn’t anticipate the soccer club expanding any time soon.
“Not in the foreseeable future,” he said. “It’s tough without your own facility.
“When we had our own field, our own clubhouse, it was a whole new animal compared to finding a facility to play out of.”
Ludchen and George Teibert, the current captain and at age 59 the oldest active player, represented the current team in the cakecutting ceremony.
“Thanks to the club,” Teibert, a Niagara Falls firefighter, has been able to play soccer for German Village since 1973.
“I’m really grateful for the club and all the work our parents did to get it going,” he said before taking the pitch against Celtic United.
Playing his favourite sport keeps Teibert active, though it doesn’t always make him feel younger than his years.
“Sometimes, after the game, I feel like I’m 99,” he admitted with a laugh.
Despite its name, participation on the
club’s teams wasn’t limited to players from the German-Canadian community in the region. Fiore Costa, now with the Niagara Falls Titans in the over-35 league, spent two years competing for German Village.
“It wasn’t German, it was soccer, especially here in the Falls,” Costa, 56, said. “Back then, everybody knew each other.”
The soccer club’s most-successful season happened three years into its existence when it won the Southern Ontario Carling Cup championship.
Unlike today, when only one game is needed to crown a championship, in 1960 German Village needed three games to defeat Kitchener Greenshirts six goals in five.
They dropped a 4-1 decision on the road in the opener and won by the same score when action shifted to Niagara Falls.
The sudden-death final, played on a neutral site in Hamilton, was scoreless until a Kitchener defender made a decision he would regret.
A pass back to the keeper was intercepted by Jerry Schneider, Niagara Falls’ fleetfooted striker, who scored what turned out to the game winner. John Pinkernelle recorded the shutout for German Village.
“He was so fast, he got the ball before the goalie,” George Mayer, the team’s manager, recalled.
The team began toasting the victory after boarding the bus for the ride back home along Highway 8. The celebration continued after the “bus broke down” — in the vicinity of a hotel.
“What a coincidence!” a wag in the reunion crowd suggested with a hearty laugh.
Walter Hein, who came to Canada in 1952 and was a member of the championship squad as well as the inaugural team, said soccer for him eased the adjustment to a new country.
“It was very important, that’s all we did when we were in Germany, played soccer,” Hein, now 77, said.
Coun. Mike Strange, filling in for ailing Mayor Jim Diodati, brought greetings on behalf of Niagara Falls city council.
“Sixty years is traditionally associated with diamonds, because they are the strongest and most-durable substance on earth,” he said. “I may not have diamonds to offer you, but I do offer the council’s sincere congratulations on your longevity and trust, like diamonds, the club’s durability for the next 60 years is achievable and successful.”
Strange pointed out while it was regrettable Germany was unable to defend its championship at the World Cup, “when you are a soccer fan, you never give up on The Beautiful Game.
“There are never enough games to watch, be amazed by the athleticism or to cheer on.”
German Village’s under-35 team plays Friday nights at Kalar Sports Park.