Bronx, Beers & New York City FC

New York has football. You just need to know where to find it.

For this one, we're heading uptown.

The Bronx. 161st Street. The elevated train rattling above River Avenue, Yankee Stadium across the road and, little by little, more sky-blue shirts appearing around the neighborhood.

That's where your NYCFC matchday starts.

Meet your local host at Stan's Sports Bar, one of those proper old-school New York sports bars that feels exactly where it belongs: right across from Yankee Stadium. It's been part of the Bronx sports scene since 1979, and on game days the crowd regularly spills out towards the street. Stan's Sports Bar

First job: get a beer.

Find a spot, meet your host and start talking football. NYCFC, MLS, New York, the season, the rivalry across the Hudson... whatever comes up.

No tour-guide speech. You're in the Bronx, having a drink before the football. That's the idea.

As kick-off gets closer, the neighborhood changes.

More shirts. More noise. Everyone starts moving.

Finish the beer. We're going to Yankee Stadium.

Leave Stan's and make the short walk across to Yankee Stadium together.

And that's one of the things that makes this matchday different.

You're walking into one of New York's great sporting landmarks — except tonight, the diamond is gone.

This is football territory.

Head through the gates, find your seat and watch the Bronx turn sky blue.

Then it's NYCFC.

90 minutes. New York City on the shirt. The Bronx around you. Let's play.