There is nothing New York City soccer fans love more than a Hudson River Derby, and, despite both teams having new coaches, Sunday night proved to be another epic battle between New York City Football Club and the New York Red Bulls. The teams were deadlocked through 85 minutes until a young NYCFC player named, Jonathan Lewis showed his quality.
New York City came into the game without their leading goal scorer, David Villa, and his back up Jo Inge Berget, was injured in training on Friday and unable to play. Maxi Moralez moved up to the striker position and Rodney Wallace came back into the line up on the wing. Jesus Medina was inserted in the middle of the pitch to play a more creative role than he has of late. The line up seemed to be effective but the team could never find that final pass in the build up to create a goal. Moralez was clever with his runs but his size was a factor as NYCFC deviated from their normal play out of the back style to send more balls over the top. It was a valid strategy to counter the Red Bull’s high press and seemed to work for most of the match. Maxime Chanot, also newly returned to the starting eleven, nearly put NYCFC ahead off a corner at the end of the first half but narrowly missed the net.
Both teams came to play and it was a gritty and often fiery affair on a beautiful night in the Bronx. Unlike the last meeting between the two teams, NYCFC seemed poised to fight for and win every 50/50 ball. they were aggressive from the start but were also lucky on a few occasions not to go behind. Both teams had their chances but neither could break through.
With five minutes left in regulation Jonathan Lewis proved his worth as a substitute when he stole the ball away from Aaron Long at the top of the box and made a wonderful square pass to Maxi Moralez for the go ahead goal. Lewis provided pace and creativity up top that NYCFC sorely needed. Ismael Tajouri Shradi was feeling tightness in his hamstring and had to be subbed off earlier in the half and NYCFC needed a player who was hungry and capable of challenging the Red Bull back line one on one. Lewis provided and will doubtless seem more time in future game because of it.
New Head coach Domenec Torrent had this to say after about his change in line up. “The last 20 minutes we were in trouble, I decided to play 4-4-2 with a fast player like Jonathan. I’m very proud of our players. It was not easy to play in this intensity and they played with soul. The most important thing, I say many times, you have to play with passion in derbies especially.”
It was that passion that ignited the fans in the Bronx and kept City riding high throughout the evening. Maxi Moralez summed it up. “Yes, of course winning is always good, especially in a type of game like this because we know the importance of the rivalry and we know what it means to our fans and to our club. We were coming off two road loses against them so we had to get this game in a sense but to also keep pace with Atlanta.”
NYCFC are now second in the East to Atlanta but with two games in hand. They are six points behind so wins in the next two matches could put them in a tie for first place. More impressively, NYCFC are unbeaten at home this season with their only draw in the Bronx coming at the hands of Atlanta. Their mettle will be tested again this week at Montreal come to town on Wednesday evening. Will Villa, Berget, and now possibly Shradi all nursing injuries, Lewis may have to come up big again.
