A room full of Italian professionals whose passion for soccer brought them together; cold beer and fresh margherita pies and pizza bianca with tartufi: on a hot July evening, what could be better?

Team Italia NYC gathered at Trattoria Cinque [2] to gear up for the Copa NYC [3], the 2nd annual New York City based World Cup games that will be held at Pier 40 t [4]his Saturday. It will be an exiciting day for the team, which will be competing against Team Greece, Brazil and England.

Copa NYC is a soccer league of teams composed of various ethnic groups in New York City. Each team has its own unique story about how it was formed, but the common factor is that everyone involved is a soccer appassionato.

About a year ago, Team Italia was organized through the initiatives of Fabrizio Carrer and Marco Evangelista of www.visit-italy.travel [5]. Essentially, recruiting players for the team was a word-of-mouth process, and being that there are many Italian and Italian-Americans in the city area, finding a group of men who would be willing to devote lots of time and energy in creating and maintaining a team was a feasible goal. Now, about one year later, Team Italia is solid: it has a captain, Francesco Bardazzi, a weekly practice schedule, and more people wanting to join the team than they can even accept. The players are mostly Italians permanently living in New York, with a few Italian-Americans in the mix.

Many diverse ethnic communities in New York City retain their love for soccer by organizing casual games on weekends at parks. It is very common to see games in public parks, especially with Central and South American communities in the five boroughs. Copa NYC is the most official soccer tournament of the city, showing the greatest talent and commitment of ethnic communities. According to the Copa’s website, “Copa NYC is an annual soccer tournament consisting of 16 'National Teams' assembled from a selection of participating communities from the New York area, representing their diverse cultural heritages. Each "Nation" will be represented by a team president, coach (or coaches), and a roster of 25 players, whose heritage they represent.”

The following weekend, July 31, will be the semi-finals and finals which determine who will receive the Mayor’s Cup and be declared the 2010 champions.

 As a plus, the food and service by Alessandro Refoni at Trattoria Cinque was stunningly good. There were two kinds of pie served, one with thin slices of white Italian truffles (tartufi), and cold Peroni [6] floating around. Other parties ate deep-fried lemon slices, calamari and shrimp, olives and heaps off parmeggiano-reggiano cheese for the apperitivo hour.

As Team Italia ate consumed endless amounts of pizza and beers, there was a positive and vibrant energy in the air that looked towards playing all out on Saturday. Most of all, the team seem to be friends and enjoy just getting together, eating and drinking of course, and getting pumped up for the 2010 Copa NYC.

Team Italia - The Matches
Saturday,  July 24 - Pier 40, West Side Highway
Downtown Manhattan

4:00 PM: Brazil vs Italy
5:00 PM: Greece vs Italy
8:00: Italy vs England

Quarterfinals: Sunday July 25, 2010