The NY Pancyprian-Freedoms, alongside Bay Area-based brethren and fellow 2025 Open Cup Cinderellas El Farolito, represent a certain type of American amateur soccer club. Both have history in big-city ethnic leagues, a seemingly never-ending pipeline of talent and a close-knit family feel with roots planted in the soil of foreign lands.
They also have Open Cup triumphs – actual national titles – to brag about from back when the game in this country looked a whole lot different than it does today. While El Farolito were the winners of the 1993 Open Cup, the NY Pancyprians scooped our historic prize three times between 1980 and 1983.
Join us for a closer look at the NY Pancyprian-Freedoms, who pulled off a major Cupset in our 2025 First Round with a win over Div. III pro side FC Cincinnati 2 (of MLS NEXT Pro) and now face another showdown on the road with Westchester SC of the Div. III USL League One.
Where They’re From
Standing on the sidewalk outside the home of the NY Pancyprian-Freedoms, deep in the outer boroughs of New York City, you wouldn’t know right away that you were in the presence of soccer history.
It sits on a crowded block in the northern reaches of Astoria, Queens. Overhead the N and W trains rattle, en route to Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard station, the final stop for both lines. If you step inside the doorway to the club’s headquarters, you’ll see a flight of stairs heading up, with images of the Pancyprian-Freedoms' long and proud history flanking both sides as you ascend.
There are a host of trophies the club’s won over the course of 51 years, including the 1983 U.S. Open Cup itself – a representative of one of the three years in which the club won this country’s most historic soccer tournament. The other two, for the record, were 1980 and 1982 and evidence of those triumphs dot the walls everywhere you turn.
When they Reigned
The club was founded in 1974 by Philip Christopher, who arrived on American shores in 1959 at the age of ten via a 17-day boat journey from the Mediterranean.
The Pancyprians went on to become one the top amateur teams in the country in the years that followed. Of course, there’s a small asterisk next to their three Open Cup triumphs, as they came before the birth of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Modern Era of the Open Cup in 1995/96. The NASL (the original North American Soccer League) was still in action as the country’s top-flight during those years.
