Ukrainian girls escape war for a week at Dallas Cup, finding joy, safety and hope through soccer on an international stage in North Texas.<\/p>\n
DALLAS \u2014 At the Dallas Cup, the focus is usually on the future of the sport \u2014 young athletes competing on a global stage, many destined for professional careers.<\/p>\n
But for one group of 11-year-old girls from Ukraine, the tournament represents something far more personal.<\/p>\n
More than 30 countries are represented at this year\u2019s competition, often described by organizers as a \u201cmini World Cup.\u201d Among them is a team of 14 girls dressed in blue \u2014 traveling thousands of miles from a country still shaped by war.<\/p>\n
For players like 11-year-old Arina, the experience is a stark contrast to daily life back home. Originally from Kherson, she and her family fled after the city was occupied by Russian forces, relocating to Odesa without her father.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom woke me up, and we just started driving to another city,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Even now, war is never far away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I play football, the sirens go off, and we have to leave the pitch or the school and go to the bomb shelter,\u201d Arina said. \u201cSo it\u2019s not really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
This week in North Texas, that reality is temporarily on pause.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can just forget them for now and just be here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the team\u2019s first trip to the United States \u2014 made possible by local support. Organizer Dmitriy Jidkov helped secure more than $20,000 in sponsorships to bring the girls to the tournament, with hopes of expanding the opportunity next year. He also found host families that have children the same age who play soccer.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy main reason is to get the girls out of the war,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The players say they know they couldn\u2019t have made the journey alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey helped us a lot,\u201d Arina said.<\/p>\n
Tournament Executive Director Frank Filo says moments like these reflect the broader impact of the Dallas Cup, which has long been a pipeline for elite talent. Alumni have gone on to play in more than 550 World Cup matches, with dozens of former players expected to represent their countries again this year.<\/p>\n
Still, for this Ukrainian team, the wins go beyond the scoreboard.<\/p>\n
For a few days, they get to trade air raid sirens for soccer \u2014 and simply be kids again. This trip is beyond the game of soccer. \u201cBut soccer makes it possible, Jidkov said.<\/p>\n
Support came from Dallas residents Chris Blackburn, Mark Dunbar, Matt McGraw, Nataliya Plambeck and Lance Vincent, along with companies including Aer Sales, Aeroasset, Global Medical Response and Texas Counter Fitters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukrainian girls escape war for a week at Dallas Cup, finding joy, safety and hope through soccer on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-232811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-headlines","10":"tag-dallas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}