We’re Undefeated in Canada!

If that headline makes you excited, then you might have enjoyed NYCFC’s game against Montreal last night. Sure, we picked up three points – three much needed points – but we hardly deserved them. And if you are looking to see some improvement in our performance, it was nowhere to be found.

The Game

Josh Saunders continued to be the Manhattan schist upon which our team stands. He faced no fewer than 25 shots from the Impact, with 10 of those being on target. He saved eight of them. One was a PK that drew the sides even in the 77th minute. The other on-target shot was blocked by Shay Facey, who put in another exceptional performance.

With Hernandez injured, Kwame Watson-Siriboe joined him at center back, along with Chris Wingert on the left and RJ Allen on the right. Siriboe didn’t do his future many favors with his performance. Montreal repeatedly shredded our back line, and Wingert and Allen looked uncertain about what to do on the rare occasion they did win the ball.

Andrew Jacobsen didn’t fare much better as our defensive mid. He was joined by Kwadwo Poku, who didn’t have his best game yet still shined brighter than any other midfielder on the pitch. He had some great passes, an occasional poor one, and even picked up a silly yellow. But he always put himself in a clear passing channel for his teammates, should any of them decide to look up (a rarity for NYC FC), and that alone should put to bed any suggestion about the players fitness.

Mehdi Ballouchy was on the right and delivered that “at least I don’t suck nearly as bad as Ned Grabavoy” performance we’ve come to expect from him. Though bizarrely Coach Jason Kreis replaced him with Grabavoy in the 65th minute. Was it a coincidence that Montreal scored 12 minutes later, thanks to a possible handball in the box by Tommy McNamara? Perhaps.

McNamara theoretically played on the left, but apparently they don’t teach positioning at Brown because he was rambling around like a zombie on meth, often ending up right beside Poku in the center of the field. McNamara continued his form of late, which is to say he was marginally incompetent except for the occasional moment of brilliance – with the latter unfortunately never materializing last night.

Speaking of playing horribly except for the occasional moment of brilliance, David Villa scored both of our goals. The first came in the 34th minute, from a horrible angle, though that has never stopped him before. Fortunately this time it somehow went in. The second was an amazing free kick in the 82nd minute. He bent it around the wall in what proved to be the game-winner.

It’s nice to have a striker who can be largely ineffective and consistently lose the ball for 89 minutes and then deliver a moment of brilliance or two. But I thought we signed David Villa, not Nicklas Bendtner.

It’d be nicer to have someone who is a little more consistent, someone who doesn’t try to beat three players at a time, and someone who looks up to assess his options. Villa was paired with Patrick Mullins, who put in a lot of work. And, in fairness, he was everything Villa wasn’t, including the moments of brilliance.

Pablo Alvarez came on for Mullins in the 80th. And Adam Nemec replaced Poku, who pulled up lame in the 83rd. Neither had a significant impact in the little time they were given.

By the Numbers

We did win the game 2-1, but that was the only stat in our favor. Montreal had better possession, more tackles, and fewer fouls. Perhaps most striking was our lack thereof – as in the absence of any coordinated attack. We had a mere five shots, three of which were on target. Montreal outshot us by 80 percent. And we only earned three corners, to their 10. Clearly we were largely impotent in our opponent’s half.

Saunders continues to save our hide game after game. But we need to learn how to play the ball out of the back and get it forward in some sort of cohesive attack. That’s the kind of style of play that Kreis has consistently called for, and the kind of style we have rarely seen from our side.

It’s just not working. And the occasional win, especially when we are basically stealing points from stumbling squads like Montreal and Toronto, shouldn’t be mistaken for improvements. We are still floundering, and it looks to be more than first-season jitters.

The Good News

We had some empty seats on the plane up to Montreal. Like Arsenal, and unfortunately this is the only area in which we are anything like Arsenal, our squad has been plagued by injuries. We couldn’t even muster the full 18 players allowed to travel to away games.

I know, this is supposed to be the good news section. I’m getting to it.

Next Sunday we face Toronto, another Canadian team, and another team we stole three points from not long ago. But even that’s not the good news.

The good news is that the cavalry are coming. Andoni Iraola and Angelino have joined the squad as right back and left back, respectively. Hopefully they will provide our back line with the competency they so desperately need.

We’ve already told you about the veteran Iraola. And Angelino may only be 18, but if this Man City loanee performs anything like Facey, he will be a massive improvement over the current crop of traffic cones we call defenders.

Plus, we’ve got Tefu Mashamaite on trial. The veteran center back was named Player of the Year last season in South Africa, where he captained the Kaizer Chiefs to the title with a pass completion rate exceeding 90 percent (and more than 60 percent of those passes advancing the ball) and committing only seven fouls.

And then there’s Frank Lampard, who will finally join the team for the Toronto match as well. His leadership and skills may be hampered by his aging legs, but hopefully he can help bring a little direction and perhaps even some results to our woeful offense. If nothing else, his addition to the squad mathematically reduces the chances that Ned Grabavoy will play, and that alone is cause to celebrate.

The post-match coverage on the YES Network featured an Ian Joy interview with Sporting Director Claudio Reyna. Our game day Goebbels, Joy was man enough to admit that he was wrong to dismiss the rumor that Andrea Pirlo will sign with the club, and then put the question to Reyna. In the pre-recorded segment, Reyna said that the club was indeed close to signing Pirlo but the deal had yet to be finalized. If this does happen, that would be some cavalry indeed.

In his interview with Joy, Reyna described the new additions as NYC FC 2.0. If we do add Pirlo and Mashamaite in addition to Lampard, Iraola, and Angelino, then we will have in fact replaced nearly half the squad – the kind of turnover you’d only expect in the off-season. And man-for-man, each of them looks to be a significant improvement on our current crop of starters.

We are just past the halfway mark of our inaugural season, and we’re sitting in 17th place. That’d be a relegation spot, if our league swung that way. We’ve had five wins, five draws, and eight losses. And we have a negative goal differential.

Yet NYC FC 2.0 can still recover enough to make the playoffs. And with the addition of these new players, there’s hope that we can salvage something from this season, even if it is only are self-respect.

On To The Next One

We’re hoping to keep up our record against Canadian teams as Toronto FC visit Yankee stadium this Sunday at 3.

Toronto were just hammered 4-0 away to LA Galaxy and come here in really poor form. Not to mention the absence of key players Michael Bradley and (sort of…) Jozy Altidore, both who are away at the Gold Cup, a visit from a team that would usually be very dangerous is seeming a lot easier.

With the debuts of Iraola and Lampard off the bench, plus the possible debuts of Angelino and Mashamaite, this Sunday should be an exciting day to be an NYCFC fan. Which doesn’t happen very often.

Oh, did we mention Pirlo?

On to the next one.