On Saturday, NYC Footy, the nation’s largest amateur soccer league, and one of its branches, NJ Footy, hosted the Cup of Dreams, a five-on-five co-ed indoor soccer tournament at American Dream, the dining, entertainment, and retail venue in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Teams were required to have at least one woman (most had more), competed in three different skill divisions, and played five 20-minute games. The squads that moved on faced off to decide the winners of each division.
The Amsterdam News spoke exclusively to participants Sean McFarlane and Ashley Toussaint about what attracted them to NYC Footy.
“Originally, a friend asked me to play on the team,” said Toussaint, who grew up in Georgia but now resides in the New York City area. “Once I got on the field and played in the league, I just really enjoyed the atmosphere of just being able to play soccer, which is something I really love to do.
“But also they had a social aspect to it,” she continued, “so they definitely emphasized hanging out and doing like meetup groups and that was really cool because there are other leagues in the city where you can play soccer, but you just show up to your game and then you go home. But here it’s kind of like you show up to the game and then you bond as well with other people and it’s a fun way to meet people throughout the city. Especially since when I moved to New York, I didn’t know anybody, but it was a great way to have that social aspect to it as well.”
Sean McFarlane, a retired professional soccer player who was born in Jamaica and emigrated to the United States at the age of 12, shared how he became involved with NYC Footy.
“I was introduced (to NYC Footy) by a few friends,” said McFarlane, who initially served as a referee for games. “Then I started getting more engaged in the community with NYC Footy, started playing games and my good friend invited me to a few tournaments and it’s been a blast ever since.”
McFarlane shares a similar view of NYC Footy as Toussaint in its value of growing their professional and social network.
“It’s a little bit of a more relaxed, competitive environment where they’re more focused on building a community of soccer players than per se just to go for competition and win.”
But being the best is also part of the players’ makeup and McFarlane’s Thunderpussies won the tournament in the P2 division, the highest skill level that competed on Saturday. After the tournament, NYC Footy members gathered for food and drink at Yard House at American Dream in a show of camaraderie.
For more information on upcoming NYC Footy events and how to register, visit NYCFooty.com.