Summer in New York City is Shakespeare in Central Park, Mostly Mozart and broken air-conditioning on the subways — when the trains are running at all. But it’s also the season of soccer, from the top professional leagues to the amateurs to local pickup games. A Times reporter visited four teams in four leagues within the city limits to get a sense of a soccer fan’s options in the city.
At the top of the heap is Major League Soccer, with well-known players, big contracts and first-rate stadiums. N.Y.C.F.C. doesn’t have its state-of-the-art soccer facility yet — you’ll need to cross the Hudson for a Red Bulls game for that — so it is playing on a narrow field at Yankee Stadium, where players pop in and out of the dugouts like Aaron Judge.