Ukrainian refugee became a star soccer player in the USA

By the time he joined the Rochester Lancers in 1967, the 23-year-old center back had accrued a ton of experience, playing for professional and semi-pro teams on the East Coast, in the Midwest and Canada.At the time, North American pro soccer was the sport's equivalent of the wild west, with two new national leagues and the American Soccer League. Players were in demand, especially good, young defenders such as Lalka.

A naturalized citizen, he became the Lancers' first Homegrown Player, in today's Major League Soccer parlance.Born in Rohatyn, Ukraine on July 3, 1944, Lalka emigrated to the U.S. with his parents at a very young age. Rohatyn is a suburb of Lviv, the second largest city in the western part of the Ukraine. When Lalka was one-year-old, his family was forced to escape the city because it was about to be reclaimed by the communists in 1945. His father was an anti-communist, and an active member of the underground movement. "The communists were coming back, and my father knew it would be Siberia for us if we stayed," Lalka was quoted by the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

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