Back in early-November, I charted every piece of MLS and English Premier League apparel I saw over four days at three Disney amusement parks in Florida. It was a fun way to pass the time so I decided to expand my field research to New York City.

Each week, I experience a representative sample of diverse New York City neighborhoods, from which I derived my results. To wit: I live near the border of Bushwick, Brooklyn and Ridgewood, Queens and I go to grad school at NYU in the West Village. I have four jobs located in Canarsie, Harlem, Washington Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant. I also ride my bike or take the subway through several neighborhoods on the way to work. These include Brownsville, East New York, Williamsburg, Crown Heights, the Upper West Side and Midtown Manhattan. During the last month, I also visited Park Slope, Jackson Heights, Astoria, Fort Greene, Chelsea, Red Hook, Gowanus, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Prospect Park and various locations in New Jersey.

Here are the results (click to enlarge):

On December 17, I was continuing my research on the 2 Train headed downtown when I noticed a man wearing a New York Cosmos backpack on the other side of a crowded car. When our car emptied at 42nd Street, the Cosmos guy sat in the seat in front of where I stood. I noticed he also wore a Cosmos jacket and a Cosmos sweatshirt. After a moment, I recognized him. The Cosmos superfan was actually Cosmos assistant coach/Cosmos reserve team head coach/former MLS All-Star/2002 Hermann Trophy winner /one of the greatest New Jersey soccer players of all time Alecko Eskandarian.

Alecko let me take his picture and we chatted until I got off at 14th Street. He was definitely a down-to-earth guy. He also ensured that the Cosmos are well-represented as I chart another month of NYC soccer apparel.

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A few notes on my chart and my methods:

• Every time I encounter someone wearing a piece of apparel (or a car with a club decal), I log the date, the club, the type of apparel and the neighborhood or subway station where I see it in an iPhone note. Post any questions about locations in the comments section.
• I was in New Jersey on 11/24, 11/25 and 11/26 for Thanksgiving family time. On 11/25, I hiked and camped near the Delaware Water Gap so I missed out on one whole day of soccer spotting.
• Last month, I predicted here that Barcelona would top the rankings. They did, with 11 sightings. However, I didn’t expect to also encounter Ecuador’s Barcelona SC (who I spotted on the subway).
• I try to photograph people when I can, but usually the soccer fans are too far away to take a good picture or, in the case of one dweeb wearing an AC Milan jacket on the Columbia University campus, they are just “too busy” to pose for a photo.

Stay tuned for next month’s results, new celebrity sightings and more unique soccer experiences in New York City. Merry Christmas!