Soccer or futbol in the new world

 

Me, circa 1959, greeting the Ukrainian National Football Team in the US.
My favorite player was Noha (a name meaning 'leg') standing to my right.

My father, Marian Korzeniowski, was coach of the Ukrainian National Football Team in the US, Philadelphia to be exact, in the late 1950s, early '60s. Theirs was a powerful team that traveled the country and occasionally the world to play 'футбол' or 'копаний мяч' or kick ball as my father called it. They were considered the best in America, not that soccer was very big in America at the time. 

Tato recruited players from all over the world, including Brazil, which meant he had to learn all their languages. My father told me he spoke 13 languages. I know he spoke Ukrainian, Polish, German, Austrian, Italian, Chech, Slovakian, Portuguese and English. I don't know what the others were, perhaps Spanish and Russian among them.

It was the Ukrainian diaspora's way of kicking it to the Soviets who kept them from returning home after the war. They made their way the only way they knew, by being the best, the strongest, the most fit and ready to defend their honour, their liberty and their freedom. 

My dad, on the left wearing a suit.

Keepers of the culture

Me, circa 1959

I am going through such revelations with the Ukrainians in my circle here. The Russian speakers don't believe that I do not understand Russian because everyone in Ukraine understands both languages. They think I am pretending to make a point. So many words the Ukrainian-speakers use are Russian without them knowing it. They have very little understanding of Ukrainian history before the Soviet Union. Fortunately, I kept all my books from Uki school, and I am sharing my Encyclopedia for Young People so they can study pre-soviet history. It includes history, culture, archeology, anthropology, sociology, literature and more. Such a fascinating and heart-breaking journey. We have about 60,000 displaced Ukrainians in Ireland, none of whom wanted to leave their country, all of whom are grateful to be welcomed here.

Dream with Ukraine

I feel for the youth of Ukraine. But what Russia doesn't understand is that they've cemented the resolve of the Ukrainian people to relearn what it means to be Ukrainian and to maintain freedom and sovereignty at all cost. The people born under the Soviets were not permitted to speak their language or practice their religion. They were not taught their own history, only some fabrication of untruths. They lived their lives in relative harmony with their reality.

They are now searching out and relearning all the things the Soviets tried to stamp out. We in the diaspora are the keepers of the culture. In my classes, I am not just teaching English to Ukrainians, I am sharing what I learned about Ukrainian history and culture, and I am teaching what I know about Ireland. The past, the present and the future carry equal weight. And the youngest of them are very hopeful. They are determined to create a strong Ukraine for their future. It is their duty.

Washington Post article 'As war drags on, young Ukrainians are rethinking their futures'

By Siobhán O'Grady and Kostiantyn Khudov 

https://wapo.st/3WINZA4