Funding for this program is provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

[music] No one likes us, no one likes us, no one likes us.

We don't care.

Our city is often misunderstood.

We live in the shadow of New York, we live in the shadow of Washington, D.C.

We try to keep it a little low key, yet we make our mark when necessary.

Next, Philadelphia.

[cheering] [music] We won the bid in 2022 and it was this fever pitch moment.

I felt the pride and joy.

This plaque was gifted to us for being one of the 16 host cities.

It means everything for Philadelphia to host the World Cup.

We're part of something that we'll more than likely never see again in our lifetime.

It's obviously extremely important for our sport to host the World Cup, especially when we missed on those other opportunities.

In 1994, Philadelphia put a big effort in to trying to host the games.

One of the things that was done was to host some international games.

We had never done that before.

And there was a gentleman named Richard Groff, who was a former president of this organization.

He tried to host the first game against a team from what's now Ukraine, Dnipro.

And they had 45,000 fans.

We were very proud of that, but nonetheless, we just didn't have the right stadium.

And so we got passed over.

I've been like a big fan of football, so now that it's here, it's pretty insane that I'll be able to go to my first World Cup.

Philadelphia is one of the most historic places.

This is where the founding fathers were.

This is like pretty much the start of the country of America.

Seeing all these people come here and learn about our history, that's also something that'd be great for everyone.

[film projector clicking] Soccer has been in this area for almost 150 years.

The immigrant community is the ones who really brought the sport here from the very start.

I'm the director of external relations for the Ukrainian American Sports Center, Trezob.

I'm also one of the lead organizers of various events here, such as our annual Ukrainian Independence Day Festival.

It's a full-time volunteer position.

It requires a lot of time.

Some would even call us crazy.

The Ukrainian Nationals Club was founded in 1950.

It was primarily made up of post-World War II Ukrainians that immigrated into the United States.

They had to leave Ukraine, or they would be persecuted by the Bolsheviks.

It was an effort to destroy Ukrainian cultural identity, including its sports identity.

We know there was no such thing as a competition on behalf of Ukraine.

You competed on behalf of the Soviet Union.

We wanted to have a Ukrainian club.

Home games were televised.

That's a big thing in the United States because you don't necessarily televise home games because you want people to attend.

But our games were always sold out.

The U.S.

Open Cup, which is considered the premier cup.

It was an amazing game.

It was tied at three and then it went on for extra time.

But eventually Mike Noha scores his fifth goal of the game.

The Ukrainian fellow that came here from Argentina, they won.

And that was the big time Super Bowl for Ukrainians and for the beloved sport.

To understand that Khrushchev had to read about that, how the Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals won U.S.

Championship, to me it brings a smile to my face to this very day.

And so during the 1960s, you can't find another professional team that ever played sport in Philadelphia that could bring championships like the 1960s Ukrainian Nationals.

Six-time professional league champions.

Four-time U.S.

Open Cup champions.

These people played as if they were playing for Ukraine.

Oh, that's Ihor.

Here, you show them how to kick a ball.

My uncles and my father all played for the club.

Soccer growing up, starting in the 50s.

Well, they were all born in Western Ukraine.

That's my father, Ihor Chizhovich, and then Ihor Chizovich.

And you have his brother Walter, the youngest, Walter Chizovich is on this side, and his other brother Gene Chizovich is on that side.

All of them have their finalist trophy.

Later on in 1960, US Open Cup champions, and the only one playing now is my uncle Walt.

Well my uncle Walt is best known for what he's done for the country in the sense of the coaching schools.

He started putting together our coaching schools at a high level all across the country.

He became our national coach and coach of many national teams and the director of coaching.

Here and it looks like a madness around this field.

The Seattle Sounders have arrived with 12,000 fans supporting their club.

He ran everything.

He didn't have a lot of help.

Sometimes he'd call me up and say, "Hey, you want to help me out?

National team has got this or that.

Can you come out?"

I was younger.

I'd drive out and I'd help him do the laundry of the team, the uniforms, because the Federation didn't have the money.

So he would do it.

And so he's known for that, as opposed to my Uncle Gene, who's more known for the high school and high school age and the youth stuff, and was very successful at that.

Although he was the national coach, he coached the Olympic team for two years.

They created the system.

They did it, Walt and my Uncle Gene.

So I'm a beneficiary of that.

I was a journeyman and a prose.

I don't tell people I was a great player or anything.

I just I made it.

So and then I made that decision that I think I'm just going to go right over into coaching.

So it's kind of all in the family now.

My uncles and my father they formed this club for the Ukrainian community.

They love the game.

I played there and now I have a son that's playing here and possibly the other one next year.

When Pele came everybody knows him.

He was the most famous person on the planet.

So it meant something to the non soccer person.

We had a huge soccer boom starting at that time.

So I was one of those kids and I started playing in 1976.

That's me right in the middle.

We had several other moments.

We had Pele in the 70s but then we had the World Cup coming to the United States in 1994.

'96 we hosted the Olympics in Atlanta.

'99 we hosted the Women's World Cup for the first time.

The great success of our women's team has really helped grow the sport.

[MUSIC] Other things have happened.

We had David Beckham come early 2000s, and then we had Messi come a few years ago.

The number of soccer fans and soccer supporters is bigger than ever in this area and the whole country.

If you go visit schools or just walk around neighborhoods and shopping malls you'll see kids wearing the jerseys of all those great foreign teams.

So they are becoming fans of the international game and I think one of our jobs to do again through the World Cup is to make them fans of our domestic game.

Playing professionally is something that I will always strive for because that's a dream of mine.

My favorite club is FC Barcelona but I think that's a super long shot.

But a hometown club, Philadelphia Union would be an amazing accomplishment.

They are one of the best teams in America as of now.

When I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio I was really the only like soccer kid I guess you can say.

Very different to how it is in the East Coast.

So I was four years old when I won that trophy.

Wow.

I started young winning trophies.

This bobble head, this was my favorite.

2008, wow, I was five.

My father really helped me grow as a player.

He was a tremendous coach.

I was asked to come out on a trial basis with the U.S.

Olympic team and they were forming a pool to take to the 1980 Olympics.

Don't know if I would have gone to Moscow or not.

But at the same time none of us went because our president decided it was smarter to stay home.

So but that's the shirt.

It's good to have it.

It's not that I'm messy or play but it's in the same room.

No matter what level you are playing in college in the United States, it's all super competitive and super rigorous to try to get into any program.

I got recruited to go to New Haven, University of New Haven.

I was also playing in England a little bit, in Liverpool, and now bouncing here at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.

During the summer is when I play for the Ukrainian Nationals.

The ladder in the US is not very straightforward compared to other parts of the world.

You kind of have different leagues and entities and you know the MLS is kind of like the household you know league in name and there's no real direct you know path from those leagues into the MLS.

Gotta get the Ukrainian glass of course.

Today's with glass.

So one of the freshmen on the bench yesterday at the Rutgers New York game, he was nervous to go in.

And I was like, bro, like, don't think, just, just enjoy it, bro.

Like, just play.

It's hard.

You're worrying about how much time, if you're going to start, not going to start and all that crap.

It takes the fun out of it.

It does.

And it's hard not to.

But the key is, is just when it's time to play, you just play, just go play.

I sometimes have to remember that my last name sometimes carries some weight.

So not only do I have to try to prove it to myself, but I also have to try to live up to the name.

[MUSIC] What got me into soccer was my dad and my brother just kicking the ball around.

I was like, I wanted to do what my brother could do.

So I decided to try that cuz my brother was in the Philadelphia Union, so I was always around it anyway.

I first started here at Union Juniors at probably like 10, 11 when I moved here.

And then from there I started moving through the ranks in the Philadelphia Union Academy and then I started getting integrated with the second team and then once I got offered the first team contract and a professional contract in general I was kind of like wow a dream's come true.

My debut night it was a bittersweet moment because it wasn't an unfortunate result.

I didn't expect I was gonna go in at all.

I was warming up on the side I was talking to Cavs and some of the teammates like okay see like who's gonna be the next sub and when they pointed we were like who are they pointing at and they said 44 I was like no like in my head I was like no way like we were losing so I didn't like smile at all but I was definitely very very excited.

Every player here hopes that wants to play and it's obviously up to the coach.

My short-term goal is obviously is to push more for first team minutes and continue to win the supporter shield this week and even also yeah all the way to MLS finals.

I think that soccer in the United States has always been something that people had to fight for.

In Philadelphia, you're fighting with the Eagles, you're fighting for Flyers, you're fighting with the Phillies and the Sixers for viewership.

I really don't know if Philadelphia would have a team if it wasn't for Sons of Ben.

The Sons of Ben!

The Sons of Ben!

The Sons of Ben!

The Sons of Ben is the Philadelphia Union's official supporters group.

They're called Sons of Ben for Sons of Benjamin Franklin, which was a Philadelphia big figure for us.

The MLS didn't really think a team in Philadelphia would work, and so a group of people did not accept that answer.

and cheer for a team that didn't exist.

And eventually that got bigger and bigger and bigger until Philadelphia got a team.

Today I am proud to officially announce that in 2010 Philadelphia will join Major League Soccer as the league's 16th team.

These people from Philadelphia, these ordinary people, work so hard to get a team.

Regular fans that, you know, they weren't politicians, they weren't big owners or anything, they were just regular people.

That original group of people just said, "Hey, I think this is something we can do.

I'm watching other cities like D.C.

and New York have a team.

Well, why wouldn't we have a team?"

Is Major League Soccer ready for Philadelphia?

I think that speaks to Philadelphia in itself that the fans could do that.

[music] I've been a fan of the Philadelphia Union since 2010.

And then I went to college six hours away, so I was driving 12 hours round trip just to go to games.

So when you first get to the tailgate, you come through check-in.

And then once you do that, it's all you can eat, all you can drink at the tailgate.

Everybody that you see here is a volunteer base.

The Union for the last couple years have been a really good team.

We just couldn't finish.

So I'm hoping that this season changes that and we can finally get those trophies.

They built their own players, and they have done a very good job in that.

Today we're playing New York City FC, who is a rival.

I think the Union are definitely going to win.

And I think we're going to have a lot of fun rooting for them.

New York City typically gives us a tough, tough match.

I'm feeling pretty good.

A little nervous.

I don't know, I just really hope they win.

And if I had to guess the score, I think it would be like, two to one or something.

If we win today's game, then we are the best team in the league.

We have the most points overall, and we get to win something called the Supporter Shield.

And the Supporter Shield is something that's owned by the supporter groups of the MLS.

And it's a shield that basically you just get for that says, hey, your team was awesome.

You guys were great supporters.

I'm proud of you.

[crowd cheering] [crowd chanting] [crowd cheering] [crowd chanting] [announcer] Steal by Lukic, works it across.

Oh, a shot deflected.

No!

[MUSIC PLAYING] [CHEERING] And full time has been called.

Philadelphia Union are your 2025 Supporter Shield winners.

[music] It's a great feeling to be my first year and win a trophy for my boyhood club.

It's a great feeling.

A mad feeling.

It's a great feeling.

It's great, yeah.

Wonderful.

Best regular season record.

I think it's the toughest trophy to win out of all of them.

You've got to be good all year long.

You can't just get hot for a few games.

I wasn't here as I cried.

It's one of the best things that I could have ever asked for and I'm just happy to be here and happy to be part of it.

[music] I love Philadelphia's grit.

I think it's a gritty city.

I think people who are in Philadelphia love Philadelphia.

They're very passionate about their sports.

They're very passionate about their city.

I grew up in New Jersey.

Probably 30 minutes from here actually.

So I'm a Philly fan.

At the age of eight, I said to my mom and dad, I want to be a pro soccer player.

So I put my mind to it.

And then I went to Rutgers University.

My senior year, I got drafted to play for Gotham FC, which is the pro team in NWSL in New Jersey.

So I played three years there and eventually got an opportunity to coach.

Women's soccer continues to grow.

I think the National Women's Soccer League has continued to grow every single year.

When I joined, the minimum pay was like $5,000.

It was a joke.

It was people had to gather jobs.

Now they are making a great living off of just being able to play professional soccer.

Number 10 from Hessen, Germany, midfielder Valentina Birol.

I'm from Frankfurt, Germany.

It's very unique for the US and Germany.

We don't have such things as college soccer.

What's so unique about the USA is that you can combine the university and the athletic part very well.

So I want to stay in the USA for years, do my degree, do my best as possible, playing soccer.

Just work myself up and with a big goal becoming a professional.

We are putting in hard work every day.

You have to keep believing and keep fighting although we're in the losing spiral.

It's unfortunate way to lose the last 12 minutes of a game but their fight in their battle today they really came to work and I wish we got a little more out of it this area continues to grow and produce really really talented players anytime there's a major tournament like the World Cup and like the Olympics I think it gets people excited about the sport and I hope that it continues to be more eye-opening to people of how great the city is and you know women's soccer in general how great it is in this area.

[crowd noise] [music] And we are going to begin our program.

We have to show everybody through this festival that we are a separate and distinct nation with a separate language, a separate national identity, a separate history, a separate geography.

A lot of cool ones.

I kind of like the blue one.

Ukrainian heritage is just part of who I am and part of the family and playing for the Ukrainian nationals to the Zoop.

It's really an honor because not only am I Ukrainian but also the fact that the family has such strong ties and helped build the club I think it's just like a sense of legacy playing for them.

We are resilient, we are hardworking, we overcome any limitations that we may have and we strive to be our best.

And that defines, I think, a Philadelphian.

And in many ways, a Philadelphia Ukrainian.

There's just the rich, diverse character of our city where soccer is a global sport.

And because we have people from all over the world that are Philadelphia residents, they're bringing their soccer fandom with them.

So we fully expect and are preparing to embrace and welcome guests and fans from around the world and really put Philadelphia on the global map in a major way.

And this is a map of Lincoln Financial Field, which is where we're hosting all of our matches.

A fun fact is that at Lincoln Financial Field, which is where the Philadelphia Eagles play, our NFL team, it opened in 2003.

And the first game-ticketed event that took there was a soccer match.

Sold-out soccer match.

And so that really is a cool factoid, but also just reflects Philadelphia's passion and interest in soccer.

We'll be hosting six matches.

The first match will take place on June 14th.

There'll be five group stage matches, and it will culminate in a knockout round of 16 match that takes place on all days July 4th, 2026, which is also the 250-year anniversary of our country.

But the fact that we'll be able to have a match that's taking place on the 250-year anniversary of our country, in the city where democracy was birthed, you couldn't write a better script.

[music] We all love it now that it's here, that people get to see this, that people get to not just New York, not just Chicago, not just LA, it's in Philadelphia.

It's a soccer city.

We're a sports city.

A real live sports city.

I mean, everybody comes to Philadelphia, they love Philadelphia.

It's where everything started at, many, many years ago.

It's the best city in the world and we're ready to host anything.

We'll have a good time.

It's also a very good place to have a party.

I think we get a bad reputation sometimes.

You know, maybe we're a little tough, maybe we're a little gritty, but that's Philadelphia.

We're a blue-collar city.

I think there's a lot more to us than what a lot of people see and I think when we're hosting the World Cup, the world is going to get to see Philadelphia the way that we see Philadelphia.

It's home.

It's these people.

City of brotherly love and sisterly affection.

We're ready to welcome everybody.

[MUSIC PLAYING] Funding for this program is provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Corporation of New York.