New York City Football Club extended it unbeaten streak to 5 games on Saturday night against FC Cincinnati in a game that was probably closer than it should have been. NYCFC was in control for the first 70 minutes but Cincinnati mounted a late push that stretched City to their limits.
It was not the first time NYCFC had faced a club content to park the bus and counter attack. Last week in DC they had faced a Ben Olsen side content with sitting back and holding City to a draw. It was more of the same on Saturday night with both Cincinnati and NYCFC more effective in attack.
City looked poised to take the early lead as they broke down the backline of Cincinnati again and again in the first half. Their persistence paid off in the 39th minute when Alex Ring got free off a nice pass from Gary Mackay Steven to score the opening goal. They were rewarded again by a rocket shot from Anton Tinnerholm in the 55th minute and look destined to go on to win the game walking away. Cincinnati had other plans, however. After a formation shift in the 65th Minute they gained more ground against a tiring NYCFC defense and in the 74th minute were rewarded with a goal by Brandon Vazquez. It is hard to say exactly who is at fault for the NYCFC blunder but Keaton Parks found himself in a dangerous position in fron of goal and made a bad pass intercepted by Vazquez and coolly slotted home past Sean Johnson.
Johnson would have more work to do as the game wore on keeping NYCFC alive with many athletic saves. Cincinnati was not content to go gently into that good night and pushed again and again for the equalizer to no avail.
Although it was a win for NYCFC the team was left with many questions after the game. Their assist leader, Maxi Moralez, went down in the 25th minute with an apparent MCL injury and looks to miss a good amount of time. James Sands received his fifth yellow card and will be forced to sit out the next match in New England. One must also wonder why on a team with so much attacking talent that a defensive midfielder, Ring, and a right back, Tinnerholm, are the scoring leaders for the year. Also, in a game where NYCFC seemed gassed at the end why did Ronny Deila not use more of his subs. After the game Deila seemed unconcerned.
“For almost 70 minutes we were completely dominant all over the pitch. When they got it to 2-1, we got a little shaky and they got belief. When you’re two nil up you try and keep the result and high press and we did most of the time. First 70 minutes, you can’t do any better than that. That’s really good. The intensity, the pressure, how we break lines, the great chances, we scored two goals. They had nothing, Last 20, we were suffering after we gave them a goal. We needed to have three behind in the end to get to calm down. But we did get good control and the boys controlled the game out. We won, fully deserved.”
It is true, the team won. Three points is three points but they will have a big week this week prepping for another trip to New England. The questions are not going to go away, but for now at least the answers the team has found seem to be working.
