Sports

Karcz kicks Poland past Jamaica for Copa NYC title

NYC Poland celebrates its Copa NYC title. (Damion Reid)

Chris Karcz may not shower anytime soon despite playing 120 minutes of soccer. No, the midfielder’s hygiene isn’t poor, his play is just better.

Karcz, who has spent time with the Red Bulls, scored a goal, collected an assist and converted the winning penalty kick in the NYC Poland’s 5-3 win in PK’s over NY Jamaica after the teams couldn’t break a 3-3 tie in the Copa NYC soccer tournament final at Flushing Meadows Park Sunday afternoon.

The annual soccer tournament consists of 16 national teams assembled from a selection of participating communities within the New York area in Late July.

Karcz was the tournament’s leading scorer with seven goals and earned MVP honors on Sunday. He was presented the trophy by Brazilian soccer great Pele, who was on hand to announce a partnership between the New York Cosmos and the BW Gottschee soccer club. Jamaica won the team’s previous meeting in the preliminaries, 2-0.

“I think he gave me a hug,” Karcz, a New Jersey native, said of Pele. “He touched my face. I’m not going to wash my face again. It’s surreal.”

He gave Poland the early lead, scoring less than three minutes into the contest and assisting on Derik Niziolek’s goal to make it 3-1 in the second half before Jamaica rallied to draw even in the final minutes. Bartlomley Pietrzko scored on a corner kick to give Poland a 2-0 first-half lead.

Though Karcz admitted to not wanting the game to come down to him once the teams went scoreless through two overtimes, he calmly tucked his penalty kick to the lower right corner to give Poland the win.

“I picked a corner,” he said. “I knew where I was going to shoot it. I knew I was nervous, but I just tried to put it there.”

Karcz’s opportunity wouldn’t have been possible without goalkeeper Marcin Czerwinski. The Rego Park native got a piece of Dawyne Smith’s penalty kick, but the ball still went in to the bottom corner. Two kicks later Czerwinski, made a full out diving stop to his right on Dameian Blackwood to give Karcz a chance to win it.

“I was just going with my instinct with the way he was lining up,” Czerwinski said. “It was harder for him to go to my left than to my right.”

It kept Jamaica from putting the finishing touches on a furious comeback. Dwaje Reid scored to the lower left corner immediately after Niziolek’s goal to make it 3-2. Jamaica, who was unbeaten coming in, dominated play for most of the match. It got the equalizer from Easton Wilson with less than two minutes to play in regulation.

“We always had confidence that we would come back,” said Wilson, who has played with the New England Revolution. “Once you have momentum going forward you always feel like you can get the third goal.”

The winner never came for his squad. Instead they had to watch Poland receive the huge silver cup from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg after Karcz’s ball found the back of the net. There wasn’t anyone else Poland would have wanted to have that responsibility.

“I know what he is capable of,” Czerwinski said. “I had no doubt in him.”

jstaszewski@nypost.com