NYCFC battle with Toronto FC draw
NYCFC game over Toronto FC came out eager to get back to their winning ways after the long Gold Cup layoff, resulting in a frenetic, faced-paced flow in the opening minutes of the match. An exchange of quick counterattacks resulted in half-chances at both ends, with neither team really being able to dominate possession.
An error from Toronto’s goalkeeper nearly saw NYCFC take the lead nine minutes in, as Maxi Moralez stole the ball away from Alex Bono and created a chance. Luckily for Bono, Toronto’s defenders were able to snuff out the danger.
Almost immediately after, Toronto answered NYCFC’s probing attacks with a quick counter that resulted in the night’s first goal.
Ashtone Morgan, filling in for Justin Morrow on the left side of Toronto’s defense, got on the end of a cross at the corner of NYCFC’s six-yard box and slotted the ball to the back post. For the second match in a row, NYCFC found themselves down a goal early on and searching for an equalizer.
They nearly got it in the 23rd minute, when a scramble in front of Toronto’s goal—seemingly impossibly—failed to end up in the back of the net.
A dangerous Jack Harrison cross found the head of David Villa at the back post, who headed it back across goal to Tommy McNamara. Tommy brought the ball down, struck Alex Bono with a shot, chased down the rebound, and fired a low-angle shot off the post. It’s hard to get more unlucky than that.
On the other end, a brilliant save from Sean Johnson denied Sebastian Giovinco’s curling effort from outside the box in the 28th minute, keeping NYCFC afloat as they continued to mount attacks. That would be Giovinco’s last action of the match, as he was subbed off with an injury soon after.
NYCFC’s next big chance came in the 39th minute, when Jack Harrison chased down a long ball over the top and fired on goal, only to be thwarted once again by Bono.
Then, David Villa dropped the mic in first half stoppage time.
It was awesome. NYCFC were nearly beaten again in the 49th minute, when Ben Spencer looked to have scored from close range at the back post. The goal was waved off after referee Ted Unkel and his assistant referee came to the conclusion that Spencer was offside.
Then it was Maxi Moralez’s turn to make his mark on the match. In the 56th minute, Alexander Callens made a clutch tackle along the left sideline, played his way out of trouble, and sent a long ball up to David Villa, who teamed up with Maxi to work some absolute magic.
Just… just watch this.
Goodness gracious, it’s extremely nice to have him back. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be a storybook ending for NYCFC on the night. Toronto found their equalizer by way of Victor Vazquez, who scored a 90th minute penalty kick. RJ Allen was judged to have dragged down a TFC attacker in the box, and Ted Unkel didn’t hesitate to blow the whistle.
NYCFC HEAD COACH PATRICK VIEIRA
On why the team plays counterattack instead of looking for more goals…
“Yeah, I think I was satisfied with winning 2-1 with the way we were playing tonight, I was going to be satisfied. I think sometimes you have to accept that the other team is going to play better and Toronto played better in the second half. When we scored the goals, we were struggling a little bit, and then when I decided to make the changes it’s just because I was accepting to leave them with the ball and it was up to us to defend and defend well. If you look at the way we conceded the second goal, it was bad defending. You have to give them credit though. If I was in their shoes I would be really disappointed to go back to Toronto with only one point.”
On whether he feels like the draw tonight is a missed opportunity for the football club…
“After the game, I’ll tell you that I’m really pleased with the point.”
On whether he would say that Toronto is so good that NYC couldn’t defeat them…
“Of course. I think they showed how good they are. I said before the game, that is one of the strongest rosters in the league, and they showed that again today with the changes that they made and the players played really well. There is a lot of work for us to do if we want to compete against the best team in the league and Toronto for me is one of the best, if not the best team in the league. Tonight it was the difference between these two teams.”
NYCFC Midfield Maxi Moralez
On today’s game…
Obviously it’s a result we weren’t looking for, they were missing some key players and when that’s the case we have to take advantage. It’s not the result we wanted but we didn’t lose which is also important.”
On the post-game meeting…
“Obviously we’re all upset, I don’t think we deserved to tie. They came to defend and counter attack and that’s how they were able to score. It’s a sour feeling but we must learn from it and use it as motivation for what is left to come.”
On the next game…
“Yes we have to keep our heads high, on Saturday we have another important game against a top team and we know we have to gain ground on them and get all three points. We know we can’t drop anymore points at home in order to keep going forward.”
NYCFC GOALKEEPER SEAN JOHNSON
Talk about the final result…
“Yeah, you know, it was a tough result. I think that obviously we’re disappointed not to come away with three points. We fought hard. We played a solid 85 minutes and gave away a PK at the end there to give them life and they were pressing on from there even after that. Tough one to swallow. I think we as players have to find a way to close that game out regardless of the situation over the course of the game. We have to figure that out.”
Discuss your woes early on in games as of late…
“It’s a 90 minute game and at the end of the day, we’ve put ourselves in a position to win the past three games. Once going down a goal, we’ve fought back. Obviously you don’t want to be behind. You don’t want to be the team that’s known for going behind. But at the end of the day, if you have the lead, a lead is a lead. Anything can happen over the course of 90 minutes. We have to ride different waves and we’ve shown that we can come back and win after going down two goals, so we have to come back and win. There’s no excuse.
We just really have to band together now. We have three days in between and I think this one hurts for everyone but at the same time, we have to figure things out going into the next stretch of games. These next three games are really important and I think we’re lucky not to come away with nothing.”
Discuss your experience with the USMNT…
“My focus is here now, but the national team camp was good. Three weeks of training and getting used to Bruce [Arena] and the staff was good. There’s really nothing more. We did what we had to do to win the group and now I’m back with NYCFC and shifting my focus towards what we have to do going forward. Today’s a tough one.”
Talk about the difficult stretch…
“This stretch is the most important one of our season. We understand that as players that we have to put ourselves in positions to go for it and see out games. It’s not going to get any easier. Three tough opponents coming up. We don’t want to look too far ahead, but we have to take advantage of our games at home. Especially our games at home. We know how the league is and how home games are important. We can’t drop points like we did today. Being in a position where we have three points in the bag and we walk off the field and give away something silly at the end of the game. Chicago is a must win for us and if we do our best, we will come away with three points.”
NYCFC MIDFIELDER JACK HARRISON
How’d it feel coming back after missing two games…
“Yea it was nice to get back out there in front of the fans and everything but we didn’t start off with the intensity that was needed.”
Level of comfort between the first and the
“We had a discussion at half time and we knew that we needed more intensity. We knew that we needed to be a bit quicker and we worked on that more in the second half.”
Being ready for Saturday after a hard game like today…
“Yea I’m going to do as much recovery as I can between now and Saturday so I will definitely be ready.”
Ability to battle back after a slow start…
“Yea it was tough. I feel like I should take some responsibility for that first call. He was my man and I should have been marking him. It’s tough to go on after things like that but as a player you learn how to deal with things like that and move on because there is still a lot of time left in the game and if you are still worried about that one play it’s not going to help you at all.”
How much preparation did you have for the subs and formation changes in the second half…
“We talked about it a little bit. We were a little disorganized at first when the subs came on. But they did a great job and worked very hard for us but we were a bit unfortunate to give up that second goal.
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