Maxime Chanot celebrates his equalizer for NYCFC against the Philadelphia Union in a 2-1 win over the Boys in Blue at Yankee Stadium Saturday. (Credit: NYCFC)
NEW YORK — The moment Fafa Picault put his foot through the ball and guided it into the far corner past a diving Sean Johnson, the 11 men wearing blue on the pitch at Yankee Stadium had the same thought surging through their minds — here we go again.
After constantly chipping away at the wall that Andre Blake was in goal for the Philadelphia Union to no avail, New York City FC was once again on the wrong end of a late goal, the opener putting the Boys in Blue in a 1-0 deficit with 20 minutes remaining.
“When Philadelphia scored the first goal, to be honest, by myself but I’m sure the team had the same feeling. We get …” said centerback Maxime Chanot, the Frenchman searching in his vocabulary to get the right word in English. “We are so disappointed, so we have to react, for the coach for everyone that’s working for the team and for the people in the stadium.”
And react they did, scoring two goals in five minutes to not only steal back a point but take all three that were on the table, defeating the visiting Union 2-1 Saturday in the Bronx.
It was Chanot who opened the floodgates, knotting the match at a goal a piece with a thundering header to the near post, sneaking it in past Blake as the keeper’s feet failed to move.
Minutes after, his partner at the back Alexander Callens completed the comeback with a header of his own, again originating from a corner delivered by Maxi Moralez, again ending at the far post, only this time Callens scored with his feet, pushing a rebound off a Blake save of a David Villa shot into the back of the net.
Having conceded six goals over the past three games costing NYCFC four points, it was a relief for the centerback pair to earn back some of those points themselves on the other end of the pitch.
“I’m really happy for Maxime (Chanot) and Alex (Callens) to score those goals, because lately, those goals we conceded, they’e taken it a little bit personal,” said head coach Patrick Vieira. “More than anybody else, I’m really glad these two centerbacks scored because they’ve been working, sacrificing themselves for the team and for them to score the two goals to make us win the game is really good.”
Vieira said he was proud of his players, that turning the game around in such a short amount of time showed different characteristics that the squad hadn’t shown all season.
“I think that game we showed that we can win ugly,” he said, adding that it showed the character of the side to not throw in the towel, especially when it had every reason to.
The match completed a stretch of six games in 20 days for the Boys in Blue, a brutal time frame which Chanot said caused the team to be tired. The last leg of that stretch of matches wasn’t favorable, either, with an embarrassing 3-1 loss to Atlanta United and a late 1-1 draw against New England coming in the seven days before Saturday’s showdown with the Union.
But NYCFC didn’t give up, putting its head down and grinding out a gritty victory, one best exemplified by one of the day’s heroes.
Chanot was a victim of a nasty collision with Union centerback Oguchi Onyewu midway through the first half, their heads bumping as they both went up for a header in the NYCFC box.
Onyewu would try to remain in the match but was forced out at the 40th minute due to a possible concussion. Chanot would remain in but not without complications of his own.
“10 minutes (after the collision), I couldn’t run. I feel very bad in my legs,” he said. “But the same, when you’re a man, you forget about being a football player. When you’re a man, you have to fight for yourself and for the team. That’s what I’ve done. I couldn’t leave my teammates like that so I did my best to stay on the pitch and (Saturday), it went, I scored to get the game back to 1-1 and finally we won the game, so it was good to put myself in a bit of trouble to help the team.”
The victory, NYCFC’s first since a 3-0 thrashing of Orlando City two weeks prior, puts aside the struggles the club faced in its recent matches against United and the Revolution, giving the Boys in Blue momentum heading into the international break.
While a majority of the players will rest and prepare for their next outing, a trip across the Hudson River to face rival New York Red Bulls in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup fourth round, some will be representing their countries, including Chanot.
He left Sunday morning to meet up with the Luxembourg national team as it prepares to take on the Netherlands in a friendly match, unsure if he’ll be fit to participate but satisfied with the three points he helped earn.
“In football, sometimes, you can talk how much you want, the truth is on the pitch,” he said. “So if you want to go back to Atlanta, I think we concede three goals because we lost our air for 15 minutes. Otherwise, we make a good game. New England, we concede two goals especially like a corner kick and I think in football, especially against New England, it’s all about concentration, we had (a long talk), the whole team after the game and we were clear about this. That’s why we wanted to show it was a mistake against New England, Atlanta and that’s what we’ve done tonight.”
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