In Crown Heights, Once Torn by Race Riots, a Friendly Game of Soccer

The World Cup may be days away, but in Brooklyn, the Crown Heights Cup game on Sunday may be almost as important. In some ways, it is more important.

Since 2011, teams of Hasidic Jews, give or take a ringer or two, have faced off at least once a year against teams made up largely of black immigrants from the Caribbean. They have jostled and elbowed one another while deftly kicking and passing the ball on an artificial grass field in a neighborhood playground, Hamilton Metz Field.

The Hasidim, despite stereotypes of their lackluster athleticism and obsessive absorption in Torah study, have won two of the games and lost one. They won again Sunday, 4-2, with a player named Mendy Vogel, a 20-year-old immigrant from London, scoring three goals.

“Our side is not playing defense,” said a frustrated Junior Lewis, a 45-year-old Trinidadian, as he waited to play the second half for the Caribbean team with his side down, 2-0. Yet, Mr. Lewis, who teaches soccer at a Brooklyn public school, was happy that the game was occurring at all, given the neighborhood’s history of racial tensions.

“This is nice,” he said. “It brings everyone together.”

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