In his first interview upon signing with New York City FC, CommBank Socceroos midfielder Aiden O’Neill gave his new fanbase a bit of an insight into who he was. "I'm quite Australian, so I enjoy fishing, being at the beach, and going for walks with families and friends,” he said.
“I own a farm as well, that's something I'm pretty passionate about. We run cattle there, so that's a big part of my life off the field.”
It was a pretty classic Australian answer, really, but it did, on reflection, almost feel like a bit of a juxtaposition; a Queenslander that raised cattle now headed to the concrete jungle that is New York.
But, seven months into his tenure in the city that never sleeps, O’Neill has settled in and is feeling comfortable in his new home. Living across the Hudson in New Jersey, he’s got the ferry run into town down pat – the old cliche being that nobody drives in New York, the traffic is too bad – and he’s played an important role in New York’s run to the MLS playoffs, where they just downed Archie Goodwin’s Charlotte FC in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
That set up a clash with the Philadelphia Union in the Conference semi-finals following the international break, where New York will have to deal with the loss of striker Alonso Martínez after he suffered a suspected ACL injury while on international duty with Costa Rica. If they can overcome that, then they just might find themselves on a collision course with Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, Luis Suárez and the rolling hype show that is Inter Miami in the Conference finals.
“I'm really enjoying it,” O’Neill said.
“It's obviously one of the best cities in the world. I've just loved the vibe of the place. On days off, if we go to the city, there are a few cafes, and there are even a few Aussie ones that we go to. You can get a nice coffee, and you can literally just sit there, in a nice sort of place, and people watch — just watch people do what they do.
"And you can sit there for ages. And then you go to Central Park, and you can feel extremely calm if you don't want too much noise. So I'm really enjoying it.
“It's a new experience for me, being in the playoffs in America and seeing how it works. We were so close to finishing [the series against Charlotte] in two games, but it went to penalties, and unfortunately, we didn't get it done then. So then we had to play the third one at their home ground. But we got the job done, and we move on to the next game.”
O’Neill’s next game in New York, however, won’t be played in sky blue. And it won’t be a do-or-die clash against the Union in the city of brotherly love. Instead, he’ll be wearing Green and Gold, with the Socceroos arriving in the city and seeking to bounce back from their loss to Venezuela on Friday when they take on 13th-ranked Colombia.
And the Queenslander, who says he’s more of a Manhattan man at the moment, has even got a few pieces of advice for any Aussies that are heading into town to watch the game. Or any that just happen to find themselves in the five boroughs on other, non-Sokkah business.
“I remember on our first day, I went to Times Square just to check that out, because, you know, you've seen it in movies and all the time, so you've definitely got to see that,” O’Neill grinned.
“Elmo was there. And there was a cowboy. There were a few different things, but it's all entertaining and pretty cool to see.”
“And then I'd probably go to Central Park. That's incredible. And then from there you want to go to somewhere like the East Village, the West Village, Soho, those sorts of areas are really, really cool – full of quite trendy cafes and restaurants.
“And then there's an Aussie pub in New York called Old Mates Pub. And that is really cool. They've got chicken schnitties and steaks. They even started doing a Sunday roast now as well. That's in the financial district. They've got an awesome setup there. And if any Aussies are coming to New York, that's definitely got to be up there, if not the number one spot to check out. And then I think Edge NYC in Hudson Yards is quite cool. It's this tall building where you can go on a platform that's glass, and you get a really cool view of the city.
“I think if you want to do New York quite quickly, and there are five things to do, I would probably recommend those five.”
Another of the quirks of life in the Big Apple that O’Neill has come to terms with, and something his Australian teammates are going to receive a crash course in very soon, is playing football at stadiums designed for America’s pastime, baseball.
New York City FC has used both Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, the home - as you may have guessed - of the New York Yankees, as well as Citi Field in Queens, the site of their clash with Colombia next Tuesday and the regular home of the New York Mets, as home venues in recent times, as well as playing there in derby clashes with crosstown foes the New York Red Bulls.
Football is football, of course, and the game is still played between 22 players on a grass pitch. But the unique dimensions that playing at a ballpark impose on everything surrounding said pitch do throw up a few initial growing pains and challenges to a player’s perception.
“It's different,” O’Neill described. “I remember my first game, Pascal [Jansen], our manager at New York, told me to go out and see the field. I was a little bit confused by that – just why would he want me to do that? And then I went outside, and I was on the field, and it's on a diagonal a little bit because they can't fit it in horizontally.
“So when you go out there, it really can throw you off, the width of the pitch, when you're playing longer balls, or where you think you are on the field. It can be quite… unique and weird.”
In the midst of his prime years at 27 years old, O’Neill was one of the first players introduced into the Socceroos setup in the immediate aftermath of the last World Cup, making his debut in a 3-1 win over Ecuador in the first games played after that Round of 16 appearance in Qatar.
Since then, the midfielder has gone on to don the Green and Gold a further 25 times, appearing in all five games at Australia’s Asian Cup campaign. Entrusted to help fill the void left by Jackson Irvine across the past eight months, his start in Friday’s defeat against Venezuela marked the fourth straight time he’d taken up a position in coach Tony Popovic’s starting XI, as well as the fourth successive occasion he went 90 minutes.
Indeed, not only does the midfielder play his club football in the United States but, if things keep up the way they are, he’ll also be playing there next June.
“I feel like the Ecuador game, my debut camp, was only like, maybe, a year ago; not too long ago at all,” he said.
“It's been incredible to be involved with the national team for a little bit now and I definitely don't take it for granted.
“There's always pressure in football: the pressure to perform, to improve and to play - that doesn't change, it's always present. That's something that I enjoy and something that makes me play my best football.”