NYCFC Dominate Orlando in home opener

New York City FC 5-0 Orlando City SC

BRONX, NY–New York City Football Club dominated Orlando 5-0 in their home opener in the Bronx on Saturday. The first twenty minutes were a back and forth affair but then the Pigeons took off and never looked back.

In the eighteenth minute, Maxime Crepeau was given a straight red for handling the ball outside of his box and denying a goal scoring opportunity. It was a sloppy and misguided play that cost Orlando just two minutes later as Agustin Ojeda sent the ball into the back of the net. Nicolas Fernandez Mercau and Maxi Moralez added two more in the last few minutes of the fist half and Keaton Parks scored a brace in the second to end the scoring.

It was a good showing for NYCFC who had 71% of the possession in the game and outshot Orlando 13-4. It was the kind of night that head coach, Pascal Jansen had been waiting for.

“Looking at the Philly [Philadelphia Union] game, we created some big moments against Philly as well, and a few less against [LA] Galaxy. Like I said just now, you can see that we’re growing. We’re not making such a big issue of the number nine that’s not available for us. We all know that Tico [Forward Alonso Martínez] is working really hard to get back to the team and we have to be patient. I said it from day one: if we sign a new attacker, it has to be somebody who is going to add special impact qualities that we might need in this team. If that is not the case, I’m perfectly fine with the guys that are there now because you can see they can play. They were hungry today, very aggressive, and created a lot of possibilities and chances to score, even before it became 11 against 10. We’re not worried, we’ll just continue what we’re doing now.”

Indeed, if New York City can continue with what they did today then they will be a tough team to face no matter the opponent.

The atmosphere at Yankee Stadium was electric with over 26,000 in attendance on a chilly March day. For newly acquired midfielder, Kai Trewin it was his first opportunity to see what New York fans were like in person.

“I’m loving it, mate. My experience in New York so far has been unbelievable. We got a really good start, and I’m loving playing with the team. The way we play suits me a lot, and being out there playing with home fans made it easy for us. I’m happy we could repay them.”

New York is off to a very good start being undefeated in their first three games and sitting on top of the Eastern Conference as of this writing. There job is not yet done, however, the club still needs to sign a striker and hone in on the intensity they displayed Saturday. Jansen spoke to it after the game.

“You can see we’re improving again from where we started. We had a lot of work to do during preseason, and it’s not finished quite yet, so we keep working in order to become a better team. You can see the growth within the three matches that we’ve played so far. For us, it was very important in the [Home Opener] to play for our own fans and make sure the energy on the pitch was there to connect with them immediately from game one at home. I think we did that, so that’s a massive achievement for the team but also a big compliment to the fans coming back home.”

Fans will enjoy another home match next weekend against Colorado. If New York keep playing with the speed and efficiency they displayed against Orlando on Saturday, they could be an entertaining team indeed.