A beautiful day in the neighborhood – Inside Neighborhood Sports Club’s 5v5 League
Exploring the intersection between soccer, culture and community, Neighborhood Sports Club is a football-inspired brand seeking to push the beautiful game forward through storytelling, design, community, and athletics. Born out a desire to find community centered active spaces, NSC aims to showcase a new kind of sports club. The brand’s reach has already gone global, participating in a soccer tournament in Paris last year, and looking toward bigger plans ahead for 2025 and beyond.
To witness one of those plans at work, Forty-One pulled up to NSC’s homebase in Oakland, California. Just under a freeway in the heart of the city lies a blink-and-you’ll miss entryway that takes you inside a mini-field where the brand hosted its first winter 5×5 league. Forty-One writer and photographer Dela Acolatse takes you inside all the small details of a NSC gameday.
The winter 5×5 league, led by NSC co-founders Jordan Jesolva and Dylan Autran, was a natural progression for the brand since its establishment in 2022. Along with fellow co-founder Max Ornstil, the three recognized the need for spaces that fostered creativity and kept people active in the aftermath of the pandemic. They addressed that need right here in Oakland, where the three former professional players grew up.
For seven straight Sundays stretching from the start of last December going into the new year, NSC staged three back-to-back games, with league standings and a golden boot race to keep an eye on as the season progressed. For the six teams who competed in the league, it was a showcase of the different skills and cultures that make the Oakland community one of a kind.
And while there was some competitiveness – it is a soccer league, after all – everyone involved with NSC knows it’s more than just winning. “We want to facilitate a space where our community can thrive – to connect, to create, to feel welcome,” stated Jesolva.
When asked about what was one lesson from setting up the league, Autran said: “Just having to push through the little things that come our way, and the best way to do that is keep an open mind and always being ready to learn.”
