So I worked at a company as an intern for a few months and now that I am done there a few of my old coworkers and interns before my time made a rec soccer team together. They are mostly females and I feel like this is important because they love to gossip/make comments.

A former intern who ive met once before joined last week and im interested but I am a little iffy on being direct because it will be very awkward as there is the team around us. We play soccer and then usually go to eat after each game.

It is also important that I note when I first met this intern at a company event I tried to make conversation the week after over instagram DMs but i got a pretty lackluster response. She responded to the initial message 3 days after I sent even though I could see she was active and then after i responded i never got a response back. This was 6 months ago.

We share a alot of interests and she seemed super excited to see me when she showed up to soccer and gave me a hug so I dont think the instagram was as big of a deal as I made it. We had conversations about our mutual interests and recent vacations we took but I dont wanna come across too friendly.

Is it too risky to be direct in this kind of environment and if its fine then what steps should I take?

Edit: spelling