Tag: Philadelphia Union

The Day After (Philadelphia)

NYCFC broke their 11 game winless streak on Saturday night as we ousted Philly 2-1.

Wait, What?

We won? Really?

Yes, turns out we got 3 points. Frankly I still haven’t really accepted that as fact because it’s just been so long since it’s happened, I don’t know how to react.

While the hype-machine PR douchebags who run most of NYCFC’s website will herald this win as a massive stepping point, we’d like to put things in perspective before everyone gets their panties in a bunch.

Nothing Changed

The sad truth of that match was that we got very lucky. This was no tactical marvel, no newfound spark from the team, and not even the hardest fought game. There was very little we can point to that contributed to our first win in ages.

David Villa still dribbles too much and overthinks every move he makes, our defense gets caught making stupid tackles, and we struggle to get players wide. Our passing and movement off the ball are poor. We just didn’t play a good game.

If anything, we owe that win more to Philly than ourselves. The amount of chances they wasted and mistakes they made almost looked as bad as us. We would not have even been able to compete in that game had the Union not been so bad themselves.

Yet aside from all this brutal cynicism, there was a positive to take from this game.

Shay Facey

My man. I’ve always been excited about Shay, from the first day the young English lad got subbed on at right back in Yankee stadium. To me it was simple: would I rather have a young American player who’s been playing at college level, or a young Brit who was raised through the Man City youth system? No matter what, he’s going to know things that it will take years for his counterparts to learn, that’s just the reality of the gulf  between youth development in Europe and the States.

Much to my chagrin, however, Facey has had a rough start to life in the MLS. In his first start for the club he managed a red card in the first half and he’s had some really shaky defending. But after getting a rare start at center back against the Houston Dynamo, Facey has impressed, even being named man of the match against Philly.

Facey looked like vintage fuckin’ Vincent Kompany against Philly. He just had that beautiful intangible aurora about him where you just knew he wasn’t going to lose the game. Every cross into the box he managed to clear, he ran tirelessly, his positioning was spot on, and his high field pressing would force mistakes from the opposition attackers.

Though he did have some “training wheels” moments, most notably when his poor excuse for a cross fell invitingly at the feet of a Union player only for him to fuck up. But, as the case was, Philly made us look good. And Facey looked good.

If Facey can keep up this run of form he could be the rock in the back we thought Hernandez would be early in the season.

On To The Next One

At the end of the day, we did win. Which is pretty big. I’ve never played professional footie (…yet) but I believe that this win could have the power to instill real self-belief within our players. And that’ll be important considering the run of games we have coming up.

Looking ahead, we’ve got El Clasico versus the Red Bulls on June 28th. If we can maybe get another win between now and then we might have a real shot of competing. But that’s looking ahead and asking a lot.

For next week we’ve got the Montreal Impact at Yankee Stadium. Montreal are an eclectic team to say the least. They made it to the CONCACAF Champions League final all the while coming in dead last in the league. Anything can happen with those guys, but they’ve been playing some fairly good footie lately. Let’s hope we build on progress and don’t regress.

On to the next one….

The Day After (Philadelphia)

What a weird weird game.

Javier Calle, a left winger, started at left back. The young Ghanaian powerhouse known as Poku replaced David Villa (slight hamstring injury) at half time, along with Watson-Siribioe replacing Hernandez (calf).

It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

I sincerely believe that periods of our play last night were the best these boys have ever played. I also believe that our lethargic final 20 minutes was some of the worst defending we’ve had, which is saying a lot.

The start of the second half was chock full of incisive passing, encouraging interchanges, shots on goal (gasp!) and overall quality. We looked like a real footie team, if only for a while. All of this without Villa. So what happened?

Kwadwo Poku

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact reason why Poku was so influential, seeing as there are so many.

It all comes down to his vision and marauding runs through the midfield. We’ve written before about how Jacobson and Mix are fairly inept at the main attacking focus of center midfielders: transitioning the ball from defense to attack. Far too often this season Jacobson and Mix lack the ability the move the ball forward, beat a player or two, and pick out a player in attacking position.

This is what Poku does. He picks the ball up and immediately picks up his head and looks to push forward. It was exciting watching his close ball control, his strength and speed to seemingly fly past opponents, and his tactical nous to pick out the right player once he’s in the attacking third. Fucking brilliant.

Yet, he waned as the half progressed. Which is worrying, seeing as he came on at half time. The rest of the team seemed to follow that trend.

What Happened

It seems that we went from playing the best football of our nascent season to playing some of the worst in a blink of an eye.

Suddenly it was the 70th minute and Poku couldn’t get his passes right, the team was making dumb fouls, and our game dropped significantly.

Was it fitness? That’s a possibility, as people did look visibly gassed. But that seems odd as guys like Poku and Watson-Siriboe had only just come on.

Was it the pressure? Maybe after such encouraging play they started making a few mistakes and they freaked out? That could be a factor, but we’d hope the team is mentally tougher than that.

Maybe it was just the loss of a commanding presence in the back, in the form of Jason Hernandez. Jason looked distraught to be injured at half, you could tell he wanted to help his team win. Perhaps with him in that back four the defensive collapse near the end of the game could have been avoided.

Regardless, we switched off for those last 20 mins (at home, mind you) and that needs to be fixed. We need to keep our concentration for the entirety of games, not 20 minute increments.

Shelton in the Raw

Khiry Shelton got his much anticipated first start for NYCFC last night. How was he?

He was alright. He was good. He has real pace which will always change the dynamic of any team. But he was a little sloppy in his touch, and a little poor with decision making.

While I fault the 31 year-old Ned Grabavoy for his poor decision making, I’m inclined to cut Shelton a lot of slack. Remember, Shelton was playing college footie only a few months ago. Now he’s getting called up by the Olympic team, starting for an MLS club, and rooming with Mix Diskerud. He’s really moving up in the world.

He’s got an extreme amount of raw talent at the moment, but he needs consistent playing time to properly develop. Often last night he’d have the ball out on the wing and be too indecisive or tentative to really take on the full back 1v1. That lack of confidence is to be expected from your first start, but we could see the potential there. Just take him on Khiry, you can do it.

Also his decision making in passes needs some work. I remember one time he did brilliantly to break out of the back on a counter from a corner kick. He ran the entirety of the field and had Ballouchy wide open to his right and Calle with two defenders on him to his left. For whatever reason he chose Calle. That was the wrong decision.

Yet, that’s not something you learn in training, you can only learn that from competeitve play. Maybe a year from now Shelton would have passed to Ballouchy and it would’ve been two nil.

Even with the poor decisions he made he was still a hugely important player for us last night, which is a testament to his potential as a player. Keep starting him and we will reap the rewards.

On To The Next One

I haven’t been so excited by any part of our game this season than the first 20 minutes of that second half. I’m impressed that we have it in us and we managed to show it on the field.

However, we gave up a stupid goal at the end. And we’ve only got three days until our next game. And we play Portland, a much better team. And realistically Kreis won’t start Poku, who was even lauded by the stream of consciousness tweets that are continuously posted on the screen at the stadium.

Encouraging from NYCFC. Could be better, but you have to start somewhere. Let’s hope we can make that last for more than 20 minutes.

On to the next one…

NYCFC vs Philadelphia Union: Preview

So we play the Union, again. On a Thursday. And then another game on Sunday. MLS.

Form

Last Saturday night we went to PPL Park hoping to take advantage of some poor form from the Philly team. Instead, we gave them their first win of their season with some awful soccer all around.

This game will be fascinating, as so few times in the footie world do you get two teams playing each other back to back in such a short span of time.

Neither team played particularly well in the first match, and you figure NYC will have more desire to win this game. In front of their home crowd, looking for revenge, they seem the favorites. But then again, I thought they’d win in Philly.

NYCFC need to shoot on the rookie keeper that Philly will be starting. A win would be welcome, but some encouraging play would do more. We’re home. Let’s shoot on this keeper, let’s have some smart passing, let’s play some fucking football.

Lineups

Philly (4-2-3-1): John McCarthy (GK), Gaddis (LB), Edu (CB), Vitoria (CB), Williams (RB), Nogueira (CM), Lahoud (CM), Wegner (LM), Pfeffer (CAM), Mbu (RM), Le Toux (ST)

-Philly have said that Le Toux is available after crashing into the advertisements on Saturday.

-Striker Aristeguieta is still an injury doubt, but could be started, replacing Wegner and moving Le Toux to left mid.

NYCFC (4-4-2): Saunders (GK), Williams (RB), Wingert (CB), Hernandez (CB), Brovsky (LB), Jacobson (CM), Grabavoy (CM), Calle/Ballouchy (LM), Shelton (RM), Nemec (ST), Villa (ST)

-With Mix playing Mexico on Wednesday night, NYCFC’s midfield will need a shuffle. Our huge hopes are that he starts Kwadwo Poku, who played an encouraging 90 minutes for the Wilmington Hammerheads (which isn’t saying a lot) this past Sunday. He’d be the perfect spark that NYC have been missing. But realistically, that won’t happen.

-The alternative is to move Ned “I play poorly and I get 90 minutes” Grabavoy to center mid and bring in Calle, Velasquez, or Ballouchy. Unfortunately, Kreis may well opt for Ballouchy as the first two might be considered too “attacking,” especially with Shelton on the opposite flank.

Final Thoughts

Kreis may fuck us over by not starting Poku, by playing Ballouchy, and by generally not changing the squad much.

But we hope he doesn’t. This team played poorly only a few days ago, and new blood is needed to shake things up. Yet ultimately, it’s not even Kreis’s decisions that will hinder us, it’s our play.

We need these boys to step up. Jason Hernandez spoke of this being the perfect time to get back out there and put in a quality performance, let’s see if the rest of the team follows suit.

These are important days for our New York City footie club. Let’s see what they’ve got.

The Day After (Philadelphia)

There’s nothing wrong with a loss once in a while. Teams lose, it happens. Some lose more than others. What matters is how you lose, and my god NYCFC were awful.

David Villa

I love the striker. He’s talented, he’s got goals in him, and he’s a legend for Spain. When I first heard he’d be coming over to the MLS I imagined he’d be wreaking havoc week in and week out.

Although he’s had a few bright spots this season, thus far I’m underwhelmed. For most games he’s had subpar service (especially compared to Atletico Madrid, Valencia, etc). Yet last night he had more than a few clear cut chances that he wasted.

On one occasion he was carrying the ball up the field, with Khiry Shelton making a diagonal run across him, trying to lure some defenders away. He ended up essentially 1v1 with a Union defender. He pushed the ball out to the right hoping to get shot off, got outmuscled, and lost the ball. That’s just poor.

For any other striker in the MLS, I’d be slightly disappointed by this performance. But this is David Villa. He’s supposed to be our X-factor. Villa is supposed to be able to pull something out of nothing. He’s supposed to get that goal when no one expects it.

Right now he’s a fine striker, but nothing else. He’s been alright, we need him to be great. Especially since the rest of this team are playing like schoolchildren.

Two Weeks

NYCFC had two weeks off. I just can’t understand what happened. After our first loss of the season, one would think that Kreis and Co. would focus on fixing some of NYC’s problems.

There’s two possibilities. 1: The coaching staff didn’t do anything for the past two weeks. 2: The coaching staff have tried to improve these problems and the players just aren’t listening.

Realistically it’s a mix of the two, but I do blame the players more. While Kreis made some suspect decisions (keeping Grabavoy on for ANOTHER 90 minutes, not starting Watson-Siriboe, putting on Watson-Siriboe for Josh Williams, which basically did nothing) it’s the players who are showing a blatant lack of determination.

After last week’s loss the players needed a reaction. This was a lethargic response. Poor passing, poor attacking, poor all over the field.

On To The Next One

The rematch against Philly could not come sooner. Of all the ridiculousness uttered by Ian Joy on YES last night, there was on thing he got right. Kreis is now under real pressure to succeed, and the team need a shake up. Maybe that means taking off the untouchable Grabavoy, or simply starting the young starlet Khiry Shelton.

NYC have been given chance after chance to beat lesser teams in the MLS and thus far have failed miserably. This Thursday in the Bronx we don’t even want a win that badly, we just want them to look like they give a shit.

….on to the next one.