Five matches into his team’s inaugural Major League Soccer season and New York City FC coach Jason Kreis has already identified an alarming trend.
The club has started slow in four of its five matches this season, and Saturday’s 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Union at PPL Park was no exception.
“Another match where I thought we wasted 45 minutes,” Kreis said. “For whatever reason, I don’t know the answer to it, and I don’t think anyone has it just yet, but we have to figure it out pretty quickly. We can’t seem to start a match the right way.”
NYCFC came out of the locker room more inspired after halftime, dominated posession for long stretches, and scored the equalizer on a beautiful series of one-touch passes.
But in the end, one pretty goal wasn't enough as the expansion club suffered a second consecutive loss – and conceded a stoppage time goal away from home for a second time this season – on what Kreis calls a “lapse in judgement.”
“A long wafted ball that’s in the air a long time and it bounces. It bounces probably 35 yards away from our goal and within the width of the penalty box,” Kreis said. “You should never see that. Never. Not at this level. We need to look at this and figure out how in the world the ball’s allowed to bounce like this from there.”
NYCFC midfielder Javier Calle was unable to close down the Union's Andrew Wenger, who lofted a cross toward goal that Josh Saunders tried to parry away before Philadelphia forward Conor Casey collided with the NYCFC goalkeeper.
The ball fell to an open Vincent Nogueira, who scored the stoppage time winner from near the penalty spot for a team that was victimized in stoppage time a week ago against Sporting Kansas City.
“We’re pushing to get the win but at the same time you have to be mindful of getting a result out of it,” Saunders said. “It was just a little lapse – we allowed the ball to bounce in our half of the field – and then had a two-v-one we didn’t get enough pressure to, guy served the ball, took a bit of a deflection, and then a bit of a scramble because they wanted it.”
After falling behind 1-0 in a tepid first half display, New York City equalized in the 55th minute on David Villa’s second goal of the season. The sequence began when Mix Diskerud played in Villa, who had found space near the top of the 18-yard box.
In one deft touch, the Spanish legend played a nifty back heel to rookie Khiry Shelton, who one-touched the ball to Slovakian forward Adam Nemec, who in turn played in overlapping full back Josh Williams with a lay-off.
Williams got in a crucial touch, sending the ball across goal before colliding with onrushing Union rookie goalie John McCarthy. Villa, who began the sequence, was there to collect, sidestep a hopeless defender, and tap in.
Another positive for NYCFC?
There’s another match against the Union on deck in five days at Yankee Stadium. That is followed by another home game next Sunday against the Portland Timbers.
“We don’t have to sit around and dwell on this result, we have a good chance to get back after it,” NYCFC defender Jason Hernandez said. “And obviously we’ll be seeing Philly again so we’ll look to correct our mistakes and definitely try and come out with three points back at home.”
