Францын шигшээ багийн хагас хамгаалагч Дэлхийн аваргын тэмцээний дараа Нью-Йорк хотод энгийн үзэгчдийн дунд гэнэт гарч ирэн тоглолтод оролцсон нь олныг гайхшруулав.
Майкл Олисе Дэлхийн аваргын гуравдугаар байрын төлөөх тоглолтод Английн эсрэг хоёр оновчтой дамжуулалт өгч, Килиан Мбаппегийн гоолын салшгүй хэсэг болсон юм. Уг тоглолт 6-4-ийн харьцаатай Английн ялалтаар өндөрлөж, Мбаппе Дэлхийн аваргын түүхэн дэх 22 дахь гоолоо оруулж дээд амжилт тогтоосон билээ. Энэхүү чухал тоглолтоос ердөө дөрвөн хоногийн дараа Бавари Мюнхен клубийн тоглогч Нью-Йоркийн Гансевоорт хойг дахь талбайд сонирхогчидтой хөл нүцгэн тогложээ.
Тус талбайд тоглож байсан оролцогчдын хувьд энэ нь санаанд оромгүй үйл явдал болсон бөгөөд Майкл Олисегийн бөмбөг эзэмших чадвар болон тоглолтын түвшин сонирхогчдыг гайхшруулсан байна. Тоглолтыг зохион байгуулагч GoodRec платформын мэдээлснээр, тухайн үед талбайд байсан тоглогчид Майкл Олисег таньж, түүнийг тоглолтын төгсгөлийн 15 минутад нэгдэн тоглохыг урьжээ.
Нью-Йорк хотод болдог ийм төрлийн сонирхогчдын тоглолтод Майкл Олисегээс гадна Соль Кэмпбелл зэрэг алдартай хөлбөмбөгчид гэнэт гарч ирж тоглодог нь хотын хөлбөмбөгийн орчинд түгээмэл үзэгдэл болж байна. GoodRec платформ нь хот бүрт хөлбөмбөгийг хүртээмжтэй болгох зорилготой бөгөөд 60 гаруй хотод үйл ажиллагаа явуулдаг нь сонирхогчдын дунд өндөр эрэлттэй байгаа юм.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Ask anyone who was at the Gansevoort Peninsula field in Manhattan on a recent Wednesday evening when Bayern Munich and France star Michael Olise showed up, and they will all tell you the same thing: they could not believe what was happening.
Days earlier, France and England gave fans arguably the best third-place match in World Cup history, with England coming out on top by a 6-4 scoreline. In that game in Miami, Kylian Mbappe secured his place as the men’s all-time leading goalscorer (22) in World Cup history, thanks to a brace scored off a pair of assists from Olise.
Yet, here was the 24-year-old just four days later, some 1,266 miles from Hard Rock Stadium. Dressed in an orange shirt, checkered pants and wearing just socks on his feet, he joined a pick-up match off the West Side Highway in New York City, giving a group of amateur players a story they will retell to their friends for years to come.
“It was a bit surreal,” says Jeff Castaneda, who played in the game. “I was just watching the World Cup with him on TV, and then he showed up. I had a lovely opportunity to play a couple of combination plays with him. It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of moment.”
The pick-up match went viral after GoodRec, the pick-up platform where the game originated, posted images of the moment on their social media accounts. Videos of Olise sliding through players in his socks, as fans commentated in the background, spread across football accounts on social media.
“You guys are lucky to be playing with Olise,” one person is heard saying in one clip shared by Sports Illustrated. In another photo, a stone-faced Olise is surrounded by dozens of smiling footballers.
For Jeff Estes, a co-founder of GoodRec, the moment drove home why the platform exists. He founded the company in 2020 alongside Lewis Black and Midori Koide, an English couple, with a simple idea: making sport accessible, no matter the location.
“We want to make it so, no matter what city you’re in, no matter what sport you want to play, you can just sign up, show up, and play,” Estes said.
“You can land in a city and call an Uber, and in 15 minutes you’re home, or wherever you need to be. But if you land in a city and you want to play (a sport), or you’re new to the city and you don’t know people, it’s hard to break into. It’s even more intimidating to sign up for a league.”
That’s where the pick-up platforms such as these come in. Between 3,000 and 4,000 people play a pick-up sport through GoodRec daily, Estes says. The platform, considered one of the largest services of its kind in North America, is spread across 60 cities. New York City and Toronto are the platform’s biggest markets, with soccer the most popular sport on the app, accounting for 90% of its usage.
In certain instances, the platform partners with organizers who run pick-up matches by taking care of game-day logistics, such as making sure games start on time or that players have pinnies for their teams.
Castaneda, 30, a lifelong soccer player and Peruvian American, has been using the service for two years. A general contractor and real estate developer by trade, he takes the Long Island Railroad from Garden City, Long Island, to Manhattan about four times a week for pick-up. He described the quality of competition in the city as being better than what he has found on Long Island, likely because of the sheer volume of pick-up options across Manhattan. The one-hour commute from the suburbs, he says, is worth it.
Depending on which field he plays on, he may run into familiar faces. On that Wednesday, however, his commute landed him on the same team as Olise. For Castaneda, who trained professionally for two years with Peru’s Sporting Cristal, the experience was easily a standout soccer memory. He described how “silky” and “smooth” Olise was with the ball. It stayed with him how much joy he saw in the Bayern playmaker when out there on the pitch.
“You can just see how natural (he was) with the ball,” Castaneda said. “You can tell when somebody plays at (a high level)… I mean, he was playing with no shoes, you know? He was enjoying himself. It was just an amazing, amazing experience.”
The entire sequence of events happened by coincidence, Estes says. The organizer of that evening’s pick-up match noticed Olise lingering around the pitch. He then shouted over to the professional footballer, inviting him to play. Players were preparing for the final stretch of their 75-minute game when the match organizer informed them, “Olise will be joining us for the final 15.”
“I thought it was a joke, so I didn’t start walking over,” says Oliver Chernyk, another player on the pitch that evening. “Then everyone took a closer look and realized: it was actually him. He just started playing barefoot with us. It was incredible.”
Olise played on the Gansevoort Peninsula field just days after starring at the World Cup (Jose Hernandez/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“The ball stuck to his feet quite well,” said Samuel Nicklin, Chernyk’s coworker, who also played in the match. “He could move really quickly while keeping the ball right on his toes.”
That evening was Chernyk’s first time playing in this specific pick-up match, with Nicklin, who grew up in the United Kingdom, playing more regularly. The pair work in private investment, with the Gansevoort Peninsula pitch visible from their offices across the highway. This summer, they shared how their entire office was glued to the television watching the World Cup — Nicklin supported England, while Chernyk, a New York City native, rooted for the United States. The World Cup fever was real, with Chernyk’s friend group even starting their own fantasy league to follow the English Premier League this season.
Nicklin says he also bumped into former England footballer Peter Crouch, who was doing broadcast work for the World Cup this summer, as he grabbed an ice cream near the Gansevoort Peninsula.
Pick-up games have flourished in the city this summer, Estes said, who lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. He joins pick-up games at least a couple of times a week. On a recent afternoon, he found himself playing against a group of friends from Germany and England.
“It is cool to see so many different people coming out” to play pick-up, Estes said. “Just by the numbers, we are having our best few months of all time, just because there’s so much more electricity around soccer.”
Olise is far from the first celebrity to jump in during a pickup match organized by Good Rec. In 2022, Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, best known for his portrayal of Jamie Lannister in HBO’s Game of Thrones, joined a game in Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side. NBA legend Steve Nash, known for his love of pick-up soccer, has also joined games in the past, Estes added.
On a recent Monday afternoon, former England defender Sol Campbell happened to be walking by a pick-up game at the Nike field at Roosevelt Park. As Olise had done about two miles away that same week, Campbell joined the fun.
“He and his team were similarly walking by, saw that we were playing, (and) our host asked him if he wanted to jump in,” Estes recounted, with a laugh. “They knew who he was, so he was able to just kind of get in. He was wearing the pinny and everything.”
The Arsenal legend broke more of a sweat than Olise had. He played with footwear on and even celebrated when he scored a goal. He also took pictures with fans, writing on Instagram, “left the game, but the game never left me.”
When playing in New York, you never know who might just jump into your game. It could be a 2026 World Cup debutant such as Olise, or a three-time World Cup veteran like Campbell. What is certain, though, is that there will always be a game to play in.
