February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Jay Mwamba
Leinster Senior Soccer League side Clontarf Athletic will line up a father and son midfield this weekend when they return to the Big Apple to face New York Athletic Club in the second Trans-Atlantic Cup at Travers Island in Pelham.
Former Irish international Mick Lawlor, who’s 49, will play alongside his 18 year-old son, Nathan, this Saturday at 2 p.m. as Clontarf, once a powerhouse in Irish amateur soccer, attempt to atone for the 6-2 thrashing suffered at the hands of NYAC two years ago. Nathan missed that game.
“We definitely underestimated them [NYAC] last time,” the senior Lawlor said in Dublin last weekend. “But we hope to reverse the tables this time.”
Lawlor added that what surprised Clontarf in their inaugural Trans-Atlantic Cup meeting with NYAC was the Cosmopolitan Soccer League side’s flawless finishing.
“Any chance they got, they finished,” he said. “That was the difference between the two teams. We were also fooled by the fact that our third and second teams won well against their sides,” the player-coach noted, alluding to the 2-0 and 5-1 victories posted respectively by the Clontarf Over-30 and “B” teams over their NYAC opponents. Lawlor scored for the “B” side then.
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Clontarf, who arrive on Friday, are only bringing two teams this time. They will, in addition, be without three key players: defenders Brendan Prunty and Peter Devlin, and midfielder Philip Delany, who all have work commitments.
“We will miss them, but we still hope to do well,” Lawlor, who played for Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk during a 15-year professional career, said.
NYAC, meanwhile, are determined to retain the Trans-Atlantic Cup after losing in the semifinals of the U.S. National Men’s Amateur Cup in Chicago last weekend. The side, coached by Dubliner Ronan Downs, an ex-Leinster Senior League star who came to the United States 24 years ago on a soccer scholarship, was beaten 2-0 by Cassal of California after goalie Jim Feuerborn was red-carded.
“The guys are excited and ready for Clontarf,” Downs said.
NYAC’s impressive run in the National Men’s Cup confirmed them as one of America’s top amateur clubs after their three-year reign as Cosmopolitan Soccer League champions.
The fashionable club comprises mainly Ivy League graduates, including strikers Will Kohler, a Harvard alum who has spurned overtures from Major League Soccer, and sweeper Jimmy Wuster, who attended Columbia.
Midfielder Pepper Brill and forwards Justin Head and Dan Hatter are some of the other NYAC standouts.
The Clontarf contingent will comprise 27 players. The first team squad will be Mick Jones (goalkeeper); Jeff Harbourne, Gary Tierney, John Lawler, Shane Brennan, and Ian McMullan (defenders); Mick Lawlor, Nathan Lawlor (midfielders); Luke Campbell, John Reynolds, Jesse Cunningham, Mick Crowe and Peter Joyce (forwards).
Second team members: Adrian Cahill (goalie), Alan Kelly, Philip Quinn, Ian Barbour, Gordon Barbour (defenders); Fran Reynolds, Gary Brown, Roddy Guiney (midfielders); Mick Grant, Derek Haines, Darryl Harrison, Steve Crowe, Brian Kenny and Tony O’Brien (forwards).
Since the 1967-68 season when they routed Eighth OBU 7-2 in the final of the Premier Shield, Clontarf Athletic, who were formed on Sept. 5, 1962, have enjoyed a rich tradition of Cup and League success in Irish amateur soccer.
They won back-to-back league and cup doubles in the United Churches League between 1969 and 1971. Clontarf also won the Elvery Cup five times during a six-year period, while picking up two First Division titles, two Premier Shields and the Healy Cup to their trophy room.
After Saturday’s match at Travers Island, on Shore Road in Pelham, N.Y., NYAC coach Downs and ex-Irish international Johnny Cavanagh will host a reception for the visitors at the Beacon Hill pub on 76th and First Avenue in Manhattan.