The waitress hadn't even heard of Major League Soccer.
GOAL called a run-of-the-mill sports bar in midtown Manhattan, asked if they were planning on showing the Hudson River Derby - long hailed as a flagship event in the MLS calendar - this weekend. The response?
"What's MLS?"
It was perhaps a microcosm of where the matchup between NYCFC and New York Red Bulls stands in the city's sports landscape. To fans of the clubs, what started as a forced campaign has developed into a friendly sort of animosity. Players are starting to embrace it. But outside of the immediate American soccer sphere, it hasn't really made a splash, failing to penetrate a crowded New York and New Jersey sports market that features over 20 professional teams - never mind the wider soccer consciousness.
But for those involved, it remains a date on the calendar to circle, the kind of game that can define a season - no matter how a campaign concludes.
"There is definitely a rivalry that is not manufactured. Like some people have actually picked up the torch and gone 'You know what? We are fighting for bragging rights in New York'," Victor Arroyo of the Red Bulls' Empire Supporters Club said.
