NYCFC suffered first defeat
City arrived for their second bout in the Rose City fresh from extending their impressive unbeaten start to the season thanks to a hard-fought 2-2 draw at Atlanta United last Sunday.
Head Coach Patrick Vieira made four changes to the lineup which started in Georgia, one enforced upon him, as the injured Isi Tajouri-Shradi made way for David Villa, who returned for his first start in more than a month.
Elsewhere, Ronald Matarrita came in for Ben Sweat, Ebenezer Ofori tapped in for Yangel Herrera, and Rodney Wallace started on his first return to a Providence Park he spent five happy years calling home.
Hosts Portland, buoyed by their first win of the season last time out, shot out of the blocks with the influential Sebastian Blanco going close twice in the opening five minutes, first shooting over the top after he faced down the City defense, before he turned wide a cross to the back post with the goal gaping.
The visitors solidified and prevented any further advances into their penalty area until the 27thminute when Blanco finally found his mark.
This time it was a clever looping header which Alexander Callens and Sean Johnson could only watch dip under the crossbar and into the far corner of the net.
Ten minutes later, the lead was doubled as Fanendo Adi tapped in the rebound at the back post after Diego Valeri had worked Johnson with a rip across goal.
That second goal compounded a disappointing first half for the Boys in Blue as they were unable to get into their usual rhythm and ask any difficult questions of the Portland backline.
David Villa, chasing his 400th career goal, provided the one dangerous moment of the first period, when his shot was tipped wide of the target well by Jeff Attinella on 41’.
More of that was required after the break if New York wanted to preserve its unbeaten record and it was an improved visiting side that emerged from the locker room.
The speed of passing had quickened and twice around the hour mark only a couple of last ditch smothers from Attinella prevented City from getting back into the game.
Vieira sent in Jesus Medina to try and conjure up some magic in the closing 30’ but Portland scored the game’s third goal against the run of play on 66’ when Larrys Mabiala thumped home a header from a set piece.
The game all but over, the Boys in Blue carried on fighting until the end and could have had a penalty on 88′ when Charra took out Villa inside the box but it really wasn’t to be NYCFC’s day as the protests were waved away.
NYCFC suffered its first defeat of 2018 with Portland. This was the first time City have failed to score this season. This was NYCFC’s heaviest defeat since the 4-0 loss in Toronto last July.
QUOTES
NYCFC head coach Patrick Vieira:
On conceding so many goals in the last two games…
“I think the first reason is the quality of the teams that we’ve played against. You have to give credit to the opposition team, how well they’ve been playing. I think today, we played against a team that prepared for the game well, who were well organized. We had the possession, but it was difficult for us to find space and they made it difficult for us. They scored goals in the period that it was difficult for us. All the credit to Portland.”
On the difficulty of playing in Portland…
“Really tough. The atmosphere was really good. Today I think, when you have the home fans making that noise, it always gives that extra to the home team. The support that they had was really good today. I understand why they are really good at home.”
On dealing with Portland’s counter attack and making adjustments in the second half…
“I think it was really difficult for us. They were defending quite well. They executed their game plan well. We were really vulnerable in the counter attack. With the quality of players they have, they scored three goals, but overall it was a really difficult game for us to find space. When they went into counter attack, they made it really difficult for us. I think our defensive transition wasn’t good enough. It was a day where we didn’t find the way to perform. I still believe that we have a good team and we’ve been doing some really good stuff since the start of the season, but of course, we think the game today shows that we still have a lot of work to be done.”
NYCFC goalkeeper Sean Johnson:
On the team suffering a first loss of the season…
“Credit to Portland. They put away their chances today. I thought they didn’t have many shots on target, but the ones they did, they converted. We were punished in moments where we made little mistakes and it’s the first time we’ve really been punished as a team. There were a lot of positives in the match and we have to take a hard look at the match and analyze what went wrong and what went right. I don’t think it’s really a big step backwards for us. It’s more so a wakeup call. We have a little bit more to work on, actually a lot of things to work on. We can always improve, but on the day they were the better team and they came away with the win.”
On anything specific the team learned after today’s result…
“Our mentality as a group. We knew the first half wasn’t good enough. To go down two goals on the road in a place like this, it’s not easy to come out of that hole. For us to have a bit more bite as a group. We take that responsibility on us as players because we were given everything to be prepared for the match, but we just have to find it within to come out everyday and compete the way we train every single day of the week. It wasn’t a match that defines us as a team and we’ll look to improve and more forward for next weekend.”
Portland Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese…
On his overall thoughts on the match…
“[NYCFC is] a fantastic team and we knew it was going to be a very big challenge. They have been doing very well. I was very happy with the discipline, the maturity, of our team – in how they approached the match and especially how they worked through the entire match to get a complete result. Very proud of the guys today.”
On the game plan and how it was effective today…
“We felt that we needed to change something for this match especially because of the way they play. But also we understood that when we had the ball we had to create the things we did well in the past few games. And the guys were able to execute in a very good way. There were some moments in the second half where they threw some different things at us. They pushed their fullbacks higher. The middles defended a little bit deeper. Overall the guys were very disciplined and I was very content and proud of the work they put in.”
