NYC Football Club Embarrassed at Home

In September, an MLS club should show you who they are at home. Playoffs are around the corner and teams have had all season to iron out the troubles in form. New York City Football Club showed Wednesday night they are inconsistent at best and highlighted that point by being blown out at home 5-1 against a Philadelphia Union team playing with an 18 year old back up keeper.

It is not that Philadelphia played that much better than NYC but it is that they seemed to want it more. New York came into this game needing three points in hopes to move up into a home playoff spot, but despite looking spry in the first ten minutes, the faded quickly. Tai Baribo, Mikael Uhre, and Daniel Gazdag all scored within a sixteen minute span in the first half  and nearly all off bad mistakes from NYC players. NYC missed several big chances sending point blank opportunities into the post or straight at the back up keeper. At the same time Philadelphia scored on every chance that NYC gave them, and NYC gave them plenty.

Mistakes abounded on the defensive line of NYC. It is hard to point the finger at one player for the result. Thiago Martins and Matt Freese, normally stalwart pieces of the defense, made bad mistakes that lead to Philadelphia goals. Tavon Gray kept all the Philadelphia players onside on the first goal. New York City dug themselves a hole very quickly.

Keaton Parks found himself in dangerous positions twice in the game and left fans scratching their heads and asking how he did not score. It was one of those nights for New York City who found themselves down three goals just 32 minutes into the game. The team had numerous chances but could not capitalize on any of them except one. 

Kevin O’Toole could not navigate around Andrew Rick in a challenge in the box Photo Credit: Kai Kanzer

The one bright spot in the game for NYC was Alonso Martinez who scored at the close of the first half to give fans a reason to tune in for the second half. Inexplicably, Martinez was taken off just eighteen minutes into the second half. Nick Cushing claimed that Martinez was “fading” then but then Martinez’s replacements did not fair much better. Philadelphia was just better on the night and played themselves back into a playoff spot with the win. 

“There were very very strange goals tonight in the first three and I was disappointed in the fourth,” Cushing said after the match. He went on to say,”Tonight was a difficult night, we conceded three goals [in the first half], making the game almost impossible. As a team, we still showed life. Alonso [Martínez] got the goal before halftime and came out. [He] created five, six huge chances in the game which we didn’t take. Then, we gave them a goal and [a]set play. We have to look at why that happened. We have to look at and quickly fix why those moments aren’t falling our way because that’s what’s impacting our ability to win football games at this moment. I looked around the group and there’s a group that wants to play the next game now because tonight is so difficult.”

Perhaps it is better for NYC to move on a soon as possible. It is September.  New York City have just five more games to play and are looking down the barrel at a home match up with Inter Miami on Saturday. They are now winless in eight games and need to prove to fans and themselves that they are capable, and worthy of a playoff spot this year. 

Jakob Glesnes clears a shot off the line from Keaton Parks after it got by Rick. Photo Credit: Kai Kanzer

Kevin O’Toole Had this to say after the match, “We have to move on from this one quickly because it’s a short week now. The focus tomorrow is to recover and get our minds right for a big one on Saturday [against Inter Miami CF]. We know the talent that [Inter Miami CF] brings and it’s going to be a fun environment on Saturday. We want to make amends for our fans and prove to ourselves that we’re a top team and we can compete with the best.”

Nearly 48,000 people are expected to pack Yankee Stadium on Saturday to watch NYC face Lionel Messi. Let’s hope they put in a better shift than they did tonight.