Philadelphia team wins youth soccer national championship

The Philadelphia Soccer Club's Coppa Rage under-17 girls squad became the first U.S. Youth Soccer national title winner from inside the city limits in 55 years.

Players from the Philadelphia Soccer Club's Coppa Rage under-17 girls team celebrate after winning a U.S. Youth Soccer national championship on Sunday.Read moreEastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Jul. 24, 2022, 3:51 p.m. ET

A girls’ soccer club team from Northeast Philadelphia won a U.S. Youth Soccer national championship in the under-17 age group Sunday, becoming the first title-winner of any gender from inside the city limits since 1967.

Philadelphia Soccer Club’s Coppa Rage squad beat Tonka Fusion Elite of Wayzata, Minn., 5-0, in the championship game, played at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando, Fla. Maura Day, Emma Levin, Taylor Mays, and Giana Rivera (twice) scored the goals.

It was the second straight year that the Coppa Rage squad made a USYS final, after reaching the under-16 final last year. They lost that game to La Roca of Weber, Utah.

“Thrilled to death for these girls that lost last year in the final, and put their head down and had a goal to come back and win it, and they got it done,” Coppa Rage coach Tom DeGeorge said.

The Union’s Brandan Craig, also from Northeast Philly, was in attendance as the team played at Orlando City the night before. Craig was on the Union’s bench for the 1-0 win.

“It was a pleasure watching the final and very proud of the girls!” he wrote on Twitter after joining the Coppa Rage players for a photo on the field.

Philadelphia SC joins a long history of local teams that have won U.S. Youth Soccer titles, four from South Jersey and 17 from eastern Pennsylvania dating to 1938. The last was last year, the under-15 boys team of Real Jersey FC — a program run by Rusty Aaronson, the father of the Union’s Brenden and Paxten Aaronson.

The last local girls’ team to win a USYS title was the South Jersey Elite Barons’ under-16 squad in 2018.

Three local teams made USYS tournament semifinals this year: the Ukrainian Nationals’ under-17 and Yardley Makefield Soccer’s under-14 boys, and Real Jersey’s under-16 girls. That Real squad includes Jaden Aaronson, Brenden and Paxten’s sister, who will be a sophomore at Shawnee High School this fall.