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They had never played together before on the same team and they each paid their own way to the 2009 U.S. Forces Europe Soccer Championship. Though they lost their first game, the cobbled-together team from Ramstein came away from Camp Darby, Italy, Oct. 25 as champions after a thrilling 2-1 victory over Aviano Air Base that went down to the last two penalty kicks.
Trailing most of the game after a first-half Aviano goal that caromed off a Ramstein player into the nets, the Ramstein Rams used a smooth passing game and stout defense to frustrate the Aviano Scorpions’ squad.
Then, with less than five minutes to play, striker Micah Cummins tied the game 1-1 with a sliding shot that eluded the Aviano keeper, sending the game to penalty kicks.
Sean Donovan scored first for the Rams in the penalty kick stage, but so did his Aviano opponent. Then Aviano’s keeper, Josh Cartwright, stopped Mike David’s shot, followed by an Aviano score to put the Scorpions up 2-1. Both Mario Price and Alvaro Solis scored for the Rams, but Aviano’s fourth man blasted the ball over the net to set the score at 3-3 with only one shooter for each team to test the keepers.
Cummins came through again with a perfectly placed shot to the right corner. The game, the championship and the European Air Force bragging rights came down to one last shot.
Ramstein goal keeper Gary Charney dove to his right and blocked a powerful shot out of play and his teammates mobbed him.
The improbable team, the players who paid their own way so they could compete had fought their way through to reign as the 2009 U.S. Forces Europe Soccer champions.
At post-game ceremonies, Ramstein’s player-coach Marc Sica was selected as the most valuable player.
“Our team had nine different scorers throughout the tournament,” Cummins said “That shows a total team effort. And, you know, that first game against Stuttgart that we lost was the first time we’d ever played together. We had only three players from the USAFE championship squad that beat Aviano last Summer. That shows really coming together in a short time.”
