Brooklyn Knights were an American soccer club based in New York City . Founded in 1999, the Knights currently field youth teams in the United Soccer Leagues Super-20 League and Super Y-League . The team also previously field a team in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid , in the Mid Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The Knights decided to cease fielding a team in the PDL in January 2013.
10-736: The club plays its home games at the Metropolitan Oval in Maspeth, Queens , where they have played since 2004. Brooklyn's team colors are white and blue. The main philosophy of the Brooklyn Knights revolves around that of player development and the belief that it should be fully accomplished by the time an athlete reaches the age of 23. Despite the Knights' strict adherence to the use of players under-23 (the PDL allows up to eight on
20-459: A longtime Queens native, and Chuck Jacob and Valerie Jacob, two New York lawyers dedicated to the restoration of historic soccer fields across the city, raised enough money to save the field from foreclosure. In addition, Nike and U.S. Soccer Foundation each contributed $ 250,000 towards the construction of a FieldTurf field and new lights for the complex. The Metropolitan Oval has since been resurfaced in 2024 with Tencate's Pivot Noninfill turf and
30-499: A roster), the team has qualified for the PDL national playoffs several times during their existence while fielding players as young as 17 to do so. In 2000, the Knights became a sponsor of youth soccer teams that are overseen by the Metropolitan Oval Foundation, Inc. that include seven teams ranging from Under-11 to Under-18. The Knights began playing home games at the Metropolitan Oval in 2004 and, after
40-576: A short hiatus, returned to the stadium in 2010. The complex was constructed in 1925 and continues to be the oldest soccer-only facility in the United States , hosting 15–20 games each week from March to November. This list of notable former players comprises players who went on to play professional soccer after playing for the team in the Premier Development League, or those who previously played professionally before joining
50-647: The Academy. The Metropolitan Oval was originally built in 1925 by Germans and ethnic German-Hungarian immigrants to be a European style soccer field with facilities. From 1925 onwards, the Oval served as a soccer field for men and boys of all ages and ethnicities. Many U.S. national team players from the New York region played games at the Oval while youths. In 1976 the three-time worlds champions Club Nacional de Football played an exhibition match against Inter Giuliana,
60-609: The complex, which takes up 4.2 acres (17,000 m ), the "Best full soccer field in the middle of a residential neighborhood" in 2004, for its "pristine" playing surface and the view of the Manhattan skyline. In addition, the Metropolitan Oval is a MLS Next member. The Metropolitan Oval Academy and facility is led by an all-volunteer Board of Directors. Jon Burklo serves as the Technical Director of
70-588: The lights have been retrofitted with GeoSport Lighting's CLIR fixtures. Currently, the Oval hosts 3-5 games a week from March to November on the field. The Met Oval Academy plays at this field against other academy teams in the MLS Next , National Academy League , and Elite Development Program leagues. In addition to being the name of the field, the Metropolitan Oval also helps develop soccer talent in New York City while offering youth of all backgrounds
80-404: The opportunity to play soccer and receive specialized training, team play, camps and clinics. The academy has teams in age groups ranging from U-6 to U-19. The Academy is run by Jeffery Saunders. The Foundation is a § 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit, charitable foundation incorporated in 1998 with the mission to: provide youth soccer programs for the New York area as well as to save, restore, and improve
90-575: The score were favorable for the Uruguayans 4-0. By the 1990s, however, the Oval was in a state of disarray. Any grass the field once had was gone from overuse. It owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes and was scheduled for foreclosure by the city. In response to this state of affairs, the Metropolitan Oval Foundation was formed to save this historic site. The non-profit organization led by Jim Vogt,
100-493: The team. (As of July 6, 2012) Attendance stats are calculated by averaging each team's self-reported home attendances from the historical match archive at https://web.archive.org/web/20100105175057/http://www.uslsoccer.com/history/index_E.html . Metropolitan Oval The Metropolitan Oval , also known as Met Oval , is a soccer complex located in Maspeth , Queens in New York City . Village Voice named
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