The wait for a Brooklyn FC team to play a United Soccer League match at Maimonides Park in Coney Island was lengthy but it finally ended with a pair of mid-March USL Super League home matches.
Brooklyn didn't enter its first Maimonides Park home stand in good form, and debuting in Coney Island wasn't enough to reverse their poor recent fortunes. Head coach Jessica Silva's squad lost back-to-back matches in Brooklyn, held scoreless in each loss, first a 0-2 vs. Fort Lauderdale United on March 15, then 0-3 to Dallas Trinity on March 19.
It's now been four straight matches without a goal scored, with Brooklyn scoring only one goal to date in the Spring half of their season, which came in their only positive Spring result so far, a 1-1 draw with Tampa Bay Sun on February 22.
Their slump now stands at 0 W-2 D-3 L in their last five matches, and Brooklyn FC's Jessica Silva put it plainly following the Dallas loss about what's been missing for her team. "We haven't scored goals. It's hard to win a match right now if you don't score goals. We're paying for every individual mistake we make right now."
Uncharacteristic mistakes at the back cost Brooklyn goals in both their Coney Island losses, though this latest loss to Dallas in particular swung on unforced errors from the home team. Brooklyn's usually-reliable goalkeeper Sidney Martinez, recently on duty with Puerto Rico's national team, made two errors with the ball inside 20 minutes to gift Dallas their first two goals. That followed up on an error by Brooklyn's other promising goalkeeper, Neeku Purcell, which led directly to Fort Lauderdale's second goal on Saturday.
Brooklyn conceded the fewest goals in the league during the first half of the USL Super League season, but Spring matches have been different, with only one clean sheet and a lopsided negative goal differential.
The team conceded nine times in two recent meetings with and losses to Dallas Trinity, games played just 10 days apart. Center-back Kelsey Hill, a fixture in Brooklyn's defense all season, said after the latest Dallas game of the team's defensive form, "Our standard was shutouts in the first part of the season. Unfortunately, that has not been the case so far. Some individual mistakes are happening that our opponents are taking the opportunities on. We just need to keep doing the extra one percent, getting better every day in training, and, hopefully, the results will start to change."
Brooklyn at last
The results weren't great but the fact that Brooklyn FC played meaningful games in Brooklyn can only be a positive for the young USL franchise. Brooklyn made the most of their proverbial short-term sublet in upper Manhattan at Columbia University, going 5 W-1 D-1 L at Rocco B. Commisso Stadium during their top-of-the-table Fall season.
The soccer turf issues that derailed plans to stage games at Maimonides Park last summer and fall appeared resolved in the games against Fort Lauderdale and Dallas. A swath of turf was laid across the baseball infield but didn’t seem to be a noticeable source of difficulty for the players.
One thing unavoidable when watching Brooklyn FC at Maimonides is how narrow and tight the field looks. The baseball pitcher’s mound used by the Brooklyn Cyclones remained upright and in place while BKFC played, with the team creating a temporary fence line that set the soccer field’s bounds on one side. There is not a lot of width to work with, and it's likely to be one of the more unique playing surfaces in the Super League.
Dallas deployed an aggressive high press at times during the first half and it troubled Brooklyn and may have been extra troubling given the tight field dimensions. When asked if there were noticeable adjustments to be made on the new home turf, Brooklyn midfielder Mackenzie Pluck said post-Dallas "We're more just thankful to have a home stadium. Granted, we need some time to fully own it, know what's ours, know the spacing, everything like that, but I think we have no excuses."
A season of change
Also not an excuse, but it's been a period of some changes for Brooklyn’s organization and its USL Super League roster. Forward Isabel Cox, a fixture of the Fall season who made 14 appearances and scored three goals, retired and was one of four players to depart before the Spring campaign kicked off. That group also included Brooklyn's early big-name signing with NWSL and United States women's national team ties, Taylor Smith. She never played for the Brooklyn USL Super League team and has since joined Club León Femenil in Liga MX Femenil.
Kevin Tenjo became Brooklyn's first Sporting Director on December 10 and took the lead on all day-to-day operations of the club's men's and women's teams. Tenjo's appointment came not long after Brooklyn’s initial president and CEO, Maximilian Mansfield, vacated his role in mid-fall, with Mansfield later announcing a new job with the Bundesliga on his LinkedIn.
Then there's the stadium change and the need to break in and acclimate to a new venue after spending previous days and home games elsewhere. Lots of transitions occurring on and off the field for Brooklyn FC as their first season progresses.
Andrew Leigh
Maimonides Park notes
Brooklyn's announced attendance figures for their first two games played in the borough – 5,129 vs. Fort Lauderdale, 963 vs. Dallas – look slightly generous and would seem to cover the number of tickets sold not people in the stadium. They're also the types of numbers Brooklyn should, hypothetically, be able to draw in future and better conditions.
Instead of the warm ocean breezes of late summer, when the team was supposed to first play at Maimonides, the team's first two Coney Island matches featured mid-March's unique blend of spring (damp and misty vs. Fort Lauderdale) and winter (dry but chilly with temperatures in the low 40s vs. Dallas) weather. Playing in the building consistently, with both women's and men's teams, should help and should make the volatility of uncontrollable things like matchday weather less of a concern.
Fan outreach might also get a boost from an old-fashioned source in cable television. Select Brooklyn matches played at Maimonides Park, which is operated by the New York Mets, now also air on SNY, the local regional sports network of the Mets, in addition to USL Super League's season-long streaming partner, Peacock. Given both Brooklyn FC men's and women's teams are competing in the crowded New York media and New York soccer landscape, adding potential points of exposure for new fans can only be positive.
Next on the agenda is Brooklyn getting a win in Brooklyn. BKFC has an away day against DC Power on March 23 before another attempt at a first Brooklyn win on Saturday, March 29 at 6:00 pm ET against Tampa Bay Sun.
