McCarren Park is its own ecosystem, sustained by the sunbathers on blankets, dogs sniffing benches, and families pushing heavy ice carts along the concrete path.
In the middle of it all, runners lap around a soccer field that glows green, and a sea of red and black uniforms gather at the center. If you zoom in, you’ll see those unifying colors have more diversity than meets the eye: An Albanian is joking with a Serbian, while a Brazilian laughs with a man from China and another from Senegal. Fifteen nationalities compressed together, bumping shoulders and smiling wide for the camera. This is the New York Ukrainian Soccer Team and they have been a steady pulse on this field for decades.
The team was started in 1947 by Ukrainian immigrants in New York City, originally developed as a way to engage the Ukrainian youth and get them involved in sports. They were initially part of the German-American Soccer League, who governed over various teams organized by ethnicity, but after twenty-one years the league recognized the need to expand the nationalities on each team and evolved into the Cosmopolitan Soccer League.
This opened up each team and welcomed immigrants from across the world to the New York Ukrainian roster, all of whom have faced language barriers, distance from their family, and the steep cost of living in New York City. What was once just a roster became a source of home.
I can attest to this, as I grew up on those sidelines, bundled next to my mom as we cheered on my father, Izzy Gjenasaj. He originally joined the team as a defender in 1986 and now serves as their Vice President – Building Manager. In speaking of the team, he confirms, “They are almost like a family.”
Even when they are off the field, the team stays in touch via a group chat and continually show up for each other in times of need. When a player’s apartment flooded, my father stepped in to help, and when new players join, the tenured team members offer advice on living in New York, sharing how much they pay for rent and discussing areas to live. Underneath the practicalities is the team’s unabashed acceptance of each other’s cultures. When their Yemen player is fasting, no one bats an eye when he declines water during halftime. They swap words from their languages, yelling them out to each other, and many of their off-field gatherings are dinners at ethnic restaurants throughout the city. It is what they attribute as the root of their success, as they consistently win first and second place in their matches.
The long legacy of the league highlights the tenure and devotion to the team. The President of the Club, Willie Zinkewitsch, can usually be found wearing New York Ukrainian gear on the sidelines of each game, over thirty years since he first joined the team. Their passion for soccer is the force that unifies them across cultures, but it’s the relationships they’ve built that keep them anchored here. When asked what brings players back year after year, Marko Petkovic, a midfielder from Serbia, doesn’t miss a beat when answering, “Of course, because of my teammates, and because we have great results.”
As McCarren Park hums with life, that steady pulse of multicultural players in red and black proves that community can thrive anywhere, even in the middle of a crowded Brooklyn field.
The season has just begun and their first game at McCarren Park will take place on March 15, 2026. The New York Ukrainian Sports Clubhouse (located at 663 Manhattan Avenue) will open in April for members, players, and their guests.
Become a member or learn more here.
Love this! Hooked by the description of McCarren Park as its own special ecosystem – which is exactly how I think of it. It’s like the biodiverse wetlands that nurtures and sustains the community around it. Also love the Ukrainian soccer team story. NYC’s soccer pitches are the proverbial melting pots.