Nick Krat ( ua, Микола (Нік) Крат; born February 24, 1943) is a retired Ukrainian-American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

defender who played professionally in the

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and the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

. He earned fourteen

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with the

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between 1968 and 1972.

Youth

Krat, a native of Ukraine, attended college at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

where he played on the men’s soccer team. In 1965, he was named the Defensive MVP of the NCAA post-season tournament as the Spartans went to the

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, only to lose to

Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university with campuses in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississip ...

. That season, Krat was also named a First Team All American.

Professional

In 1962, Krat began his career with the

Ukrainian Lions The Ukrainian Lions was a soccer club that was operated by the Ukrainian American Sports Club. The club was based in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 1949 by Ukrainians that had settled in the Chicago area after the Second World War. They comp ...

of the

. He would play every season for the Lions until 1974 except for two. In 1967, he began the season as a center back with the

Chicago Spurs Chicago Spurs were an American soccer team that was a charter member of the non-FIFA sanctioned National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) in 1967. The team was based in Chicago, Illinois and played their home games at the Soldier Field. When t ...

of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) before moving to the St. Louis Stars. In 1968, the NPSL merged with the

United Soccer Association The United Soccer Association was a professional soccer league featuring teams based in the United States and Canada. The league survived only one season before merging with the National Professional Soccer League to form the North American S ...

to form the

. After the merger, Krat spent one more season, 1968, with the Stars, this time in the NASL. He won the 1972 and 1974 NSLC championships the Lions.

National team

Krat earned fourteen

with the national team between 1968 and 1972. His first game came on September 15, 1968 in a tie with Israel. At the time, the U.S. was preparing for the

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May t ...

qualifying games. Krat started all six of those matches as the U.S. went 3-3, failing to make the tournament. The national team had no games in 1970 and 1971. When it resumed play in 1972, Krat started the first three games.

References

External links

NASL stats
*
Ukrainian Football Diaspora at Sport.ua
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krat, Nick 1943 births Living people American men's soccer players Chicago Spurs players Michigan State Spartans men's soccer players National Professional Soccer League (1967) players National Soccer League (Chicago) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players St. Louis Stars (soccer) players Ukrainian Lions players Ukrainian SSR emigrants to the United States United States men's international soccer players Men's association football defenders