New York City FC fans Jonathan Sanchez and Matt Hostetler all remember where they were on March 8, 2015 — the date of the club’s first-ever MLS match.
For Sanchez, he was in Orlando with friend and fellow fan Andy Bajana watching the newly minted soccer club play its first regular season against Orlando City SC and Hostetler was watching the match from a soccer bar in South Dakota.
Some 10 years later, they’ll be watching City face Orlando (7:30 p.m., Apple TV+) again as the New York team celebrates its home opener along with its 10th anniversary season, a monumental moment for the organization and the fans who have been supporting it since Day 1.
“I’ve said to people many times over the years, it’s extremely rare to get to be the first — especially a New York sports team — to get to be at the very, very beginnings of that,” Hostetler told The Post. “What it must have been like to be at the first Yankees game, or the first Mets game, or the first Knicks game. Obviously soccer is not to that level yet and NYCFC is not at that level yet. But we felt the significance of getting to be there from that for the very, very beginning of that, which I think was really cool.”
In the 10 years since the club played its first match, they won an MLS Cup title in 2021, a Campeones Cup championship, and after an exhausting effort, they finally found a permanent home with the beginning of construction on a new stadium in Willets Point that’s scheduled to open in 2027.
Along for the ride have been the fans such as Hostetler and Sanchez, who has felt the nostalgia over the past week leading up to Saturday’s home opener at Yankee Stadium.
“A lot of fans have been posting videos and pictures of that first season and seeing how we all looked like 10 years ago, it brought back emotions of doing something for the first time all over again,” Sanchez said.
NYCFC have spent the week leading up to their home opener hosting events for supporters to commemorate the anniversary season, with a celebration in Manhattan last Sunday and a visit to the Empire State Building on Wednesday by former great Andrea Pirlo and current members of the squad.
Pirlo, who joined City in the middle of its inaugural season and played in New York through 2017, has also been a presence at the team’s practice facility this week.
“It’s cool to see the history of [the soccer legends that have played for NYCFC],” defender Kevin O’Toole said. “Having Pirlo around this last week has been kind of a reminder of where the club has come from. It’s really cool to be involved in the same club and share in the same history that those guys came through.”
On Saturday, the team will have several alumni on hand for the 10th anniversary home opener, including Kwadwo Poku, Tony Rocha and R.J. Allen.
New York City FC will also be looking their first win of the season on Saturday night after playing to a season-opening draw against Inter Miami and a 1-0 loss to LAFC last weekend.