AS A Trump rally at Madison Square Garden took centre stage in a typically awkward but nevertheless concerning manner in New York City in the build-up to the 2024 United States presidential election, the city’s grassroots soccer scene is providing an antidote.

Throughout the city, people from all walks of life come together to play sports on a daily basis and below the surface, beneath the major leagues, is an active and organic grassroots soccer scene.

Even if it is not always explicitly political, grassroots soccer in New York City carries a message in its very being that pushes back against the anti-immigrant rhetoric of Donald Trump and his cronies.