Has the shine come off the new toy?
This is a question followers of New York City FC have to be asking themselves about the MLS expansion club that resides in Yankee Stadium after Sunday night’s 1-0 loss to the Portland Timbers.
After its encouraging 1-0-1 start that included a win its first-ever home match before more than 43,000 at the Stadium, NYCFC are winless in its past five matches.
After the home-opening win, NYCFC coach Jason Kreis tacitly warned this was a work in progress and that no one should get too crazy with expectations too lofty. Kreis’ cautioning turned out to be rather prescient.
His team, which is 0-3-2 in its past five matches, might not be a team in crisis quite yet, but it is a team in desperate need of some positive reinforcement in the form of a win.
“It would have been easy at that moment for everybody to say, ‘Wow, what a team. This is going to be a fantastic team,’ ’’ Kreis said, referring to the celebrated home-opener. “For me, it’s the same as if we had a bad performance and everybody is going to say we’re terrible. The truth is always going to be somewhere in between.’’
Kreis gathered his players inside the locker room immediately after Sunday night’s match and delivered a pointed message.
“We cannot let the results turn into really negative stuff around here; that’s the only thing that can really break us right now — if we stop believing in each other and stop being willing and able to work for each other,’’ he said.
It is, of course, still early in the season, but NYCFC, fighting for whatever bits of attention it can win over in the crowded New York sporting landscape, doesn’t want to let its critical first season get away.
NYCFC must fight falling from relevance before their ballyhooed rent-a-star Frank Lampard arrives on July 1 after he’s finished with parent club Manchester City. The last thing NYCFC wants is an anticlimactic summer of disinterest and apathy. Not in their first season. Not after the modestly successful start.
There were plenty of excuses in place for NYCFC Sunday night. An expansion team already thin on top-tier talent with a roster riddled with injuries — not a recipe for success.
NYCFC’s star, David Villa, did not play after suffering a hamstring injury that knocked him out after only a half of Thursday night’s match against Philadelphia. Midfielder Mix Diskerud, the club’s second-best player, hurt an ankle in practice Saturday and was unavailable to play Sunday night.
Villa’s replacement, Tony Taylor, who entered the match having played only 31 minutes all season, was lost for the night (and probably a lot longer) in the 32nd minute with what Kreis said looks like significant ligament damage to his left knee.
“We had five players that were unavailable due to injury,’’ Kreis said. “That’s a lot. It’s pretty crazy.’’
NYCFC entered the game offensively challenged already, having scored only five goals in their first six matches. Villa has two of those and Diskerud has one.
The Timbers ended up winning the match on a lucky goal befitting of the inartistic game.
Portland midfielder Dairon Asprilla scored on a shot that deflected off NYCFC defender Kwame Watson-Siriboe. NYCFC goalkeeper Josh Saunders, who’d committed to his right to make the save, never had a chance as the ball deflected off Watson-Siroboe’s foot and went in to the keeper’s left.
Adding insult to it all was the fact the goal came in the 79th minute of a match NYCFC had dominated. It was the fourth match this season, and third in a row, in which NYCFC was doomed by an opponent’s late goal.
In their first-ever match, NYCFC yielded an Orlando equalizer in the 91st minute. Last week in Philadelphia, they allowed a Union goal in the 92nd minute for the win. And on Thursday, they allowed Philadelphia to tie the match in the 86th minute.
Can you spell p-a-t-t-e-r-n?
The talk in the NYCFC locker room afterward was one of determination not to let this five-game winless skid drag the club down.
“None of our guys are losing faith and I hope the fans don’t lose faith, because we love them and we’re going to give them something to cheer about pretty soon here,’’ NYCFC defender Jeb Brovsky said.
“This is a learning process,’’ Watson-Siriboe said. “As long as we continue to do things right, in the end I think we can be MLS Cup champions.’’
That might be a bit aggressive. A victory to end the winless streak will do for the moment.
