NEW YORK – The problem that plagued New York City FC for much of the season appears to be fixed, with the club flying out of the gate and playing a solid first half against the Philadelphia Union on Thursday night.
But now there’s a new problem.
For the second time in as many games against the Union, NYCFC gave up a late goal that cost the expansion side critical points.
On Saturday, Vincent Nogueira netted the stoppage time winner at PPL Park, and at Yankee Stadium it was second-half substitute C.J. Sapong who struck in the 86th minute to secure a 1-1 draw for the visitors.
“It is tough to take another goal late, but it gives us something to work on,” goalkeeper Josh Saunders said after the game. “We fixed the quick start. I thought we played very well in the first half, we had a lot of good chances. We just have to be a little more efficient in the final third and in the defensive third late.”
In addition to conceding the late goal New York will be sweating over the fitness of star forward David Villa, who was replaced at halftime by Kwadwo Poku after suffering a hamstring injury. Villa will have an MRI on Friday, the team said. Defender Jason Hernandez was also a halftime sub due to a calf injury and was replaced by Kwame Watson-Siriboe.
Even without Villa for the 2nd half, NYCFC had the chances, and got a goal when veteran Mehdi Ballouchy struck in the 57th minute for his first goal in more than three years. Starting in place of Mix Diskerud, who played 80 minutes for the United States in a 2-0 win over Mexico on Wednesday, Ballouchy clinically finished with his left foot from 17 yards.
“Khiry had the ball, started driving at the back four and I just opened up,” said Ballouchy, who has bounced back from a pair of ACL injuries in the last 20 months. “I saw he saw me, he played me through and I faked I was going to go out and came back in to my left and fortunately I connected well and it ended up going in.”
There were other chances, but no goals, for NYCFC and the club would rue those misses when Sapong struck four minutes from full time.
Maurice Edu beat Watson-Siriboe on a 50-50 ball in the box and Sapong peeled off Andrew Jacobson before finishing from just outside the six for the equalizer.
“It was just kind of a hopeful ball in the box for them. Give them credit, kind of a second ball situation and they were hungry, they wanted to get to it,” Saunders said. “We didn’t necessarily make the play to clear the ball out of the box. For me, I was just hoping the guy would kick it straight at me.”
Conceding the late goal made the tie feel like a loss for NYCFC, which actually snapped a two-game losing streak. However, the winless streak extends to four games.
“I felt like we were creating tons of chances and doing everything right,” veteran defender Chris Wingert said. “We just wanted to continue to do that, but unfortunately you can’t give up a soft goal at the end like that.”
