For many fans, the weekend's soccer highlights were surely the Copa America finals and the UEFA European Football Championship, but there was action in Brooklyn, too.
The Brooklyn Football Club (Brooklyn FC), which was accepted into the United Soccer League (USL) last year, faced off against Ecuador’s C.D. Cuenca in a friendly scrimmage at Maimonides Park in Coney Island on Saturday.
Brooklyn's newest professional sports team will make their competitive debut in March 2025. That said, several thousand fans, mostly of C.D. Cuenca, attended Saturday's scrimmage, where the teams tied 3-3 in a lively match.
The game served as a test run for the new team, which will call Maimonides Park, known mostly as the home stadium of the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team, their official home.
Brooklyn FC is the brainchild of Maximilian "Mack" Mansfield, who serves as the team’s chief executive. He is the founder of Two Bridges, a nonprofit that provides academic support to youth, as well as training in soccer. Bringing a professional soccer team to Brooklyn has been a longtime dream for Mansfield, who founded Two Bridges in 2021 after a career in finance.
“It’s been a year and a half in the making from an idea on a napkin to where we are now,” says Mansfield on his team going pro. “To me, it's as emotional as it gets to see that talent from Brooklyn that we cultivated can now play at the professional level.”
Many of Saturday’s players, who were all under 20 years of age, were trained through Mansfield’s Two Bridges Academy.
“A few of our best players graduated from high school last week, and they just competed against grown men who play at the top division in Ecuador,” said Calum Benjamin, chief of strategy for Brooklyn FC. “It just shows how good this team is, and what we're gonna come with in March.”
The team is still in the process of drafting players for their official debut in the league and are hoping to find local talent.
“We're putting in long hours scouting the best talent in this area,” said Mansfield. “It's really important for us that a lot of the talent is local. There's so much talent in Brooklyn. We feel like it's our responsibility as a club to cultivate that talent.”
Hoping to grow their fanbase organically, the team is taking a community-focused approach to marketing. They recently attended a block party celebrating the 35th anniversary of the iconic Brooklyn film Do the Right Thing, where they had a booth to sign up for free summer coaching sessions.
“We're out in the community. We're out doing watch parties at bars around the city, we're doing poster campaigns, shaking hands, going to community events,” said Benjamin. “We're really just trying to hit Brooklyn in a really authentic way.”
Though the vast majority of Saturday night’s attendees were there to see C.D. Cuenca, the crowd gave Brooklyn FC a warm welcome. Some fans waited for the players outside the stadium after the game to get T-shirts signed.
“I don’t know any of the players, but I would definitely come again to see them play,” said Luis Mendoza, who attended the game. “They put up a good fight.”
The team is backed by several investors, including Brooklyn native Tim Weah, who plays for the Italian Serie A team Juventus Football Club.
Brooklyn FC will also have a women’s team that will debut in the United Super League on August 31 in a home game against Carolina Ascent Football Club.
