When Baltimore-based Christos FC squares off with MLS foe D.C. United June 13 at Maryland SoccerPlex in Boyds, Md., their counterparts will have a decided advantage.
That advantage? Having actually practiced at least once (but probably more.)
"In all honesty, in the two years I've been there we've trained the one time, and that's because U.S. Soccer came up and kind of wanted to make a video, so we did a training," Christos FC forward Pete Caringi III said in a Glenn Clark Radio interview June 2. "And that was with 10 people. With work schedules and everything it doesn't really work out.”
Christos FC is an amateur squad who has found success thanks in large part to a number of UMBC soccer alums, such as Caringi, who have continued playing together in various tournaments. (The team also features alums from other college programs in the area.) Their date with D.C. United is in the fourth round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in the country. To get to this point, Christos FC already has had to knock off one pro team -- the USL Richmond Kickers.
