The dream for players on most Academy Clubs is to someday play in the MLS. With this exclusive arrangement, the best players on BW Gottschee will get the chance to develop in Europe every summer and have a greater opportunity of one day plying their craft in the best leagues in Europe.

As a club, BW Gottschee is home to some of the most talented players in the United States, with several US National Team players across various age groups. We look forward to AX Management’s help to now give our players international exposure at the highest levels and the opportunities they deserve.

How it works:

As a club, BW Gottschee was selected because of its history for developing top talent and as a result, all Gottschee players will now be scouted directly by AX Management’s professional staff and given opportunities to prove themselves with top professional European clubs. This exclusive arrangement with AX Management in New York State will be reserved for BW Gottschee and its players.

“We are delighted to partner with AX Management. The landscape in Europe is a lot different than it is in the US. The MLS clubs do not give 17 and 18 year-old Academy products the opportunity to become a professional player. In Europe it’s encouraged. Through this partnership we now can offer our players the opportunity to pursue their dream of being a professional soccer player. Most of our players have been with us since five years old and we have now covered all bases, offering opportunities in both the college and professional game.”

Ben Boehm- BW Gottschee Youth Coordinator

AX Management background:

Alex Grendi, Managing Director, grew up playing for BW Gottschee where he was identified by many top Division 1 college programs. Alex played four years at the University of Pennsylvania where he was a unanimous First Team All Ivy selection. The Columbus Crew drafted Alex in the 3rd round of the 2009 MLS Super Draft. Alex and the Crew went on to win the 2009 Supporters Shield and the Eastern Conference Championship.

“AX Management was founded on the principles that the best way to maximize a player’s growth, development, and potential is by exposing them to the highest levels of European competition. Using our extensive contacts within the professional game we are able to bridge the gap between the United States and Europe and give individual players and teams the opportunity to prove themselves in front of and against some of the best professional teams in the world.

In 2012, AX Management saw thirty of our players signed or offered trials in the USA and Europe over our last ten Men’s Pro Soccer Combines. In addition, several of our youth players have had training stints with the likes of Aston Villa (English Premier League), Birmingham City (English Championship), and Fredrikstad FK (Norwegian Premier League)”

Alex Grendi- AX Management, Managing Director

Our U13, U14 and U15 teams are all ranked in the top 10 in the Country.

Not bad for a little Club from Queens. Read story here

Omir will be who will be traveling to Zagreb, Croatia later this month. Omir has been playing with BW Gottschee since he was 6 years old. Keep up the good work.

Chelsea has invited Timothy back in the summer to train and play in some Pre season games. Timothy is still only 13 years old but possesses all the necessary characteristics to play at the highest level.

Click here for story

The 18-year-old Doumbia is the youngest rostered player on the Force but is one of the most gifted, according to a press release. We wish him well in his Professional career.

We wish him luck in his professional career.

BW Gottschee College class of 2013

Brandon Hanat-Tulsa

Mario Ruiz-Hofstra

Stefen Mueller-Temple

Peter Gadze-Siena

Ansel Ueshiro-NJIT

Danilo Markovic-Siena

Matt Mahoney-Temple

Gabrielle Maurello-Adelphi

Niko Congionti to Bentley College

Raul Bonilla-Molloy College

Anthony Scaralla -NYU

Sebastian Morales-NYIT

Brian Fernandez -CUNY

Kevin Diaz -ASA College

Sebastian Choinski-QCC

Justin Okoro-St. Johns University

Joseph Cano-Monroe College

The 98s also hosted a BWG Adult Futsal Challenge at the same venue. The games were also played at a feverish pace with the boys from Duffy's Floor Service clearly having the technical advantage over all. However, it was Glenn Whelan's entry of Gottschee alumni which proved to have the right combination of speed, smarts, and youth to dethrone the former champions. Glenn attributed the victory to the skills and experience they all learned at the Martin Luther King Gottschee Futsal Tournaments of past years. Again, additional thanks to the Mineola Portuguese, Monaghan Boys, Team Uruguay, Team Grenada, Team Mexico, and Uniondale Leeds for an excellent and entertaining outing. 

Thank you for the support once again.

For twins born a mere five minutes apart, BWG Cosmos’  Ospina brothers are an interesting study in contrasts.

Milton, the older of the two, stands 5-3 and has terrorized defenses in the Cosmopolitan Soccer League [CSL] and other leagues for years.  Maiber, in contrast, is a strapping 6-1 center half who’s anchored Cosmos’ backline while fashioning a reputation as a goal scoring threat from set piece situations.

Now 34, the Ospina siblings have been indispensable members of Cosmos [nee BW Gottschee] since first joining the club as ten-year-olds fresh from their native Colombia. In between stints with other teams both in the CSL and elsewhere, they’ve enjoyed success at various levels including, most recently, the club’s back-to-back D’Arpino Cup victories in 2010 and 2011.

This season, the diminutive but explosive Milton has shot the lights out for both Cosmos’ Over-30 and Metro Div. One teams – remarkably while turning out for both sides on the same day.   At the start of the winter break, he’d struck five times in two games for the metros and netted 12 goals in nine appearances for the Over-30s.

He does most of his damage from a striking or attacking midfield role.  “I play either number nine or number ten. I’m 5-foot-three, quick, have [good] ball control and [good] finishing,” Milton points out.

He also confesses to a quick temper and recalls being kicked off a team once for taunting a defender in an 11-3 rout and daring the poor marker to take the ball away.

“I scored seven goals but my coach wasn’t pleased and kicked me off the team saying he didn’t want any Maradonas on the side,” Milton smiles.

Interesting enough, neither twin had played organized football before living their hometown Santiago de Cali, famously known as Colombia’s sports capital.

They were 10 when Milton’s precocious skills caught the attention of Gottschee at Flushing Meadow Park.  He joined the club’s famous junior program and brought Maiber along.

Back in Cali, the brothers had both played as strikers in pick up games. That changed when they came to the United States.

Maiber remembers his conversion to defender in 1987.  “John Benintendo [long time Gottschee coach] said to me, ‘you’re tall and you’ve got ball control, you help us behind’.”

It was a comfortable fit made even more pleasant when Gottschee discovered that the former striker hadn’t lost his scoring touch on corners.

“I score an average of five goals,” Maiber estimates his seasonal tally.

At age 16, the Ospina twins, described by Maiber as being “very tight in every sense,” left Gottschee after excelling in the organization’s U-11, U-13 and U-16 programs.

In addition to starring for Newtown High School in Elmhurst, they had stints with several different clubs including GH Metros and Steve Kovalenko’s New York Ukrainians in the CSL.

At Flushing Meadow Park, traditionally a hive of activity any weekend for Latin American amateur sides in the New York area, Milton and Maiber turned out for Huracan, Monserrate, Deportivo Cali and New York Pereira.  They even formed their own team at one point, America, and joined the CSL.

Then in 2003 they returned to a grateful Gottschee. The club was rebranded BWG Cosmos in fall 2010.

Speaking of Milton, a frequent top scorer with the club’s metro side over the years, Cosmos Over-30 boss Ed Silva says: “He officially joined the Over-30s last spring but still helps out the Metro team when available. He’s not a tall player at all but more than makes up for it with his technical ability and knack for being where he needs to be around the goal.”

At one point last fall, Milton had scored nine of the Over-30s’ 21 goals.

“But he’s not selfish either,” Silva notes. “In our one game where we scored eight goals, it was the only game that he didn’t score more than [once].  He was happy setting the ball up for his teammates and letting them score after breaking down the defense.”

Explaining how they use the veteran finisher, Silva said first-year coach, Mario Mercado has given Milton a free role to create and attack up front and it’s paid off so far.

“I asked Mario why he thinks Milton is off to such a good start and he said, ‘the team is organized, we are playing more aggressive soccer. We are getting more chances on goal and he is more confident and happy on the field.’”

Milton also admits to having being personally motivated by criticism from the previous coach who wrote him off.

“It inspired me to bring out the best out of me and to make sure that we take the championship this year under my cleats to show him and all of those that still have doubts about me that I can still play,” said the goal poacher.

Cosmos went into the winter break in mid-table in the Over-30 Second Division [4-6, 12] eight points off the pace but thanks to Milton’s dozen goals, with the second best scoring record on the log [27].  Only joint leaders Barnstonworth Old Boys and Manhattan Celtic [both with 30 goals] have scored more.

Maiber calls his brother gifted.

“He could be in a team that’s losing and you’ll have the confidence that at any moment he can score. He’s got the gift.”

A fact many opposing teams have quickly discovered.

The tournament took place February 18th through the 20th at the Wildwood Convention Center in Wildwood, New Jersey. The Cosmos players, born in 1999 and 2000, won all their group games on Saturday and Sunday before beating LSTS Academy in the semi-final and Pachuca UFC of Maryland in the finals on Monday afternoon.

The nine players who participated for the Cosmos were: (top row, left to right) Julian Boehning, Zachary Seigelstein, Fiachra McDonagh, Miguel Morales, Rafael Iocavelli; (bottom row, left to right) Cal Warshaw, Nicholas Kodron, Tarek Fahmy, Rafael Bustamonte.

by Marc Raimondi

Mark Kramarchuk was all but lost when it came to college soccer two years ago. He wanted to focus on academics and wasn’t sure what level he could play at. Around that time, his New York Cosmos (then Blau Weiss Gotschee) coach Dieter Ficken pulled him aside and told him he was a Division I player.

Ficken planted the idea and Kramarchuk has carried it out.

Shortly after the season, the Fordham Prep star sweeper committed to play men’s soccer at Bucknell, where he will not only be able to continue his illustrious soccer career at the Division I level, but he’ll also receive a top-notch education to go with it. Kramarchuk will sign early next month.

“After [Ficken] told me that, I was determined to work hard and play well,” Kramarchuk said.

The 6-foot-1 senior has all the tools to succeed at the next level. He has superior size, athleticism and skill coupled with his defensive abilities and being very dangerous in the air on offense. Kramarchuk was a driving force behind Fordham’s first-ever CHSAA Class AA state championship victory this season.

“He’s got clean skills,” Fordham Prep coach Pete McNamara said this season. “If he gets an open look, he’s gonna put it away almost every time. He’s always had that knack for goals. He doesn’t really panic in front of goal. He has a lot of composure on the ball, a lot of poise. He’s been in that situation so often. He has a soccer brain.”

Kramarchuk also uses that brain to be an exceptional student. Bucknell will not just be a soccer destination for him. Academics played a big role.

“I mean, Bucknell is a really good school academically,” he said. “It’s not too far away from home, the soccer is a Division I program and I knew I'd have a chance to play. Plus I loved the campus and small classes.”

Kramarchuk visited the Pennsylvania school during the soccer playoffs and committed two weeks later. Around that time, he also enjoyed the crowning achievement of helping lead Fordham to a state championship, which has been elusive for The Bronx school.

“Winning the state title and getting into the city championship three out of my four years on the varsity team will definitely be something [I leave] behind, but I think the team itself from this year will be what everyone remembers,” Kramarchuk said. “The group of guys and just everything we did, through all the injuries and adversity we went through – it’s something we all did together, as brothers and one team.”

He credited McNamara for his preparation and dedication. Kramarchuk clearly listens to his coaches. After all, Ficken had a profound effect on where he’ll end up playing in college.

“He told me Bucknell was a top-notch school and that I would fit very well in it,” Kramarchuk said. “Just to be able to play with some great athletes in a sport I love is something I really look forward to.”

Kevin played on the BW Gottschee Academy team from 2005-2008. According to his Coach David McCarthy who remains in contact with Garcia “Kevin was a hard working player, made those around him better and deserves everything he gets”

The Club would like to wish Kevin well starting out his professional career.

BW Gottschee U9B team played in the CJSL tournament on Saturday, January 14th, 2012. They played against NY Stars and lost 3-4, but then we came back winning the next two games against Islas Malvinas winning 8-1 and Silver Lake winning 7-2.  The boys played a great game in semi-finals against Kickers Jrs. of Southeast Queens and won 6-2, and qualified for the Final. They won the finals against Chelsea Piers 6-4.  Great job