\t\t\t\t\tOverview:<\/p>\n
The start of the Olympics can’t come soon enough for Brooklyn, N.Y. native Maria Yatrakis.<\/p>\n
This story originally was posted on BigAppleSoccer.com Aug. 10, 2004<\/p>\n
By Michael Lewis<\/p>\n
HERAKLION, Greece \u2014 The start of the Olympics can\u2019t come soon enough for Brooklyn, N.Y. native Maria Yatrakis. The former Big East goalkeeper of the year is expected to start for Greece against the U.S. in the very first event of the Summer Olympics on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I think of being next to the girls \u2014 the teammates that I have been playing with for 2 1\/2 years, having the Greek anthem playing and to be on Greek soil with Greek fans, I just get chills thinking about it now,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just going to be an indescribable feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yatrakis, who was eligible to play for Greece because of her parents\u2019 Greek ancestry \u2014 her father was born there, got a tip from her college coach at the University of Connecticut, Len Tsantiris (who is Greek). She tried out, made the team and 29 caps later, Yatrakis has found herself in the world spotlight.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe pushed me and told me that I should go and tryout and take the opportunity,\u201d she said recently.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I got the opportunity, I feel so lucky to get the opportunity to participate in these games. When you can see all the stuff that goes into making this team . . . you have to be into it, mind, body and soul all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing the U.S. is a tall order for most national sides. The Greek women\u2019s team is relatively inexperienced \u2014 the team needed to recruit eight American women with Greek heritage to bolster the quality of the team \u2014 while one player alone on the U.S. has a world\u2019s record 276 international appearances \u2014 midfielder Kristine Lilly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re players like us, too,\u201d Yatrakis said. \u201cSo, we have to not let our minds get ahead of us.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really not intimidated. I think they\u2019re an amazing team. But I think we can definitely show ourselves and definitely play well. You never know. Soccer is a very strange game. Games can turn any moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love it if we could tie against them.\u00a0 Maybe we would be able to sneak a goal in. being out there and competing. Whatever the result is, as long as we can compete, I will be proud of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yatrakis, 24, figured that she will be late reporting for her job as goalkeeper coach for Columbia University. The Lions are scheduled to start pre-season on Aug. 22.<\/p>\n
\u201cKevin [McCarthy, the coach] has been absolutely so supportive of me in every way,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m really lucky to have the opportunity to coach there and to be able to participate in the Olympics with their full support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yatrakis, who played a year under coach Joe Lee with the HBC Nasty Girls (Long Island Junior Soccer League), has performed with the New York Magic and Long Island Rough Riders of the W-League. Because she was playing with the Greek national side as much as possible \u2014 during spring and winter breaks and summer vacation \u2014 Yatrakis\u2019s time with the Lady Riders was limited.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe did excellent,\u201d said Lady Riders general manager Kim Wyant, who played in goal in the U.S. Women\u2019s National Team\u2019s first international match in 1985. \u201cWe were disappointed she could not make more of a commitment to the team. We understood her commitment to the Greek National Team.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s extremely athletic, very quick and agile for a goalkeeper. She\u2019s very active in the goal. She plays off her line well and is very vocal with her teammates. That\u2019s something you always value in a goalkeeper.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m thrilled for her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yatrakis started playing soccer as a seven-year-old (\u201cmy mom wanted me to run around\u201d), played with a boys travel team, then eventually with a girls side at 16 \u2014 the Manhattan Redlegs (now the Manhattan Soccer Club). She did not play on an Olympic Development team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found whatever team I could and ended up playing for them,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have a traditional soccer development.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yatrakis played basketball, softball and baseball, but there was something special about soccer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat grabbed my attention about soccer was just the freedom you have as a player,\u201d she said. \u201cA coach can\u2019t call a timeout. You have 45 minutes on the field with your team. It\u2019s a sport when you are pretty much free to do whatever you need to do to win the game. I actually loved that. I loved the freedom of soccer. In basketball, you have to run certain plays, do certain things you have to be told by the coach. In soccer, you don\u2019t have anything like that. You have to freedom to play and create. That\u2019s what I love about soccer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Yatrakis stops creative plays.<\/p>\n
Like many keepers, her career in goal wasn\u2019t one of her choosing, at least not in the beginning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played on a boys team,\u201d she said. \u201cNone of the boys wanted to be the goalie. Since I was the only girl, I got stuck in goal a lot. I really enjoyed it. It was a challenge for me, and it was something that I stuck with it and I was good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. and the rest of the world will see how good Yatrakis is on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Overview: The start of the Olympics can’t come soon enough for Brooklyn, N.Y. native Maria Yatrakis. This story…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[65253,98,100,99,19817,65254,65255,65256,65257,65258,65259,9,24,63,65260,65261,65262,26728,14754],"class_list":["post-158001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-2004-olympics","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-columbia-university","tag-greece-national-team","tag-kim-wyant","tag-kristine-lilly","tag-len-tsantiris","tag-long-island-lady-riders","tag-maria-yatrakis","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-published","tag-u-s-national-team","tag-u-s-womens-national-team","tag-university-of-connecticut","tag-uswnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}