The 7-0 drubbing at the hands of rival New York Red Bulls is the most glaring example of NYCFC’s early season struggles at home. (Credit: Steven Ryan of Newsday Sports)
New York City FC is suffering continual disappointment at home early in its sophomore season in Major League Soccer, posting a 1-2-5 record at Yankee Stadium this season and picking up just eight points in eight games.
In contrast, the club is 3-2-1 on the road, picking up 10 points in six games.
The latest slip at home came in the form of a 2-2 draw to Orlando City SC Sunday afternoon, in a game in which it led by two and had a chance to make it 3-0 with 20 minutes remaining.
Instead, MLS’ leading goalscorer David Villa was unable to put it in the back of the net for the second time in the game, his left foot slipping during the shot as the ball looped out of bounds. On the other end, Julio Baptista scored his first MLS goal three minutes later and Kevin Molino scored the equalizer on the penultimate strike of the match as it finished in a 2-2 draw.
Many speculate the biggest issue for the Blues is the size of the field — the pitch at Yankee Stadium is 110 yards long by 70 yards wide, the smallest dimensions allowed by FIFA’s international guidelines.
Only RFK Stadium (DC United) and Providence Park (Portland Timbers) have a pitch 110 yards long. No other stadium in MLS is less than 73 yards wide.
But this notion has been denied by both head coach Patrick Vieira this season and Jason Kreis, the man he preceded, last season. Multiple players have also played down the effect played by the size of the pitch, noting that the field is the same size for both teams.
Orlando City SC head coach Adrian Heath doesn’t think the narrowness of the pitch is the issue, but rather being aware of their location on it.
“I think one of the issues you have is trying to find out where you are symmetrically on the field, because it’s just so different than what everybody’s ever used to,” Heath said. “I think the players find that more of an issue than the actual size of the field.”
To Villa, the multitude of reasons suggested by outsiders for the struggles are meaningless. A career winner in domestic and international competition, for both club and country, the striker doesn’t believe in excuses — he simply believes his team needs to get better.
“We have this pitch, we need improve that in this pitch and no excuses,” he said. “It’s not small or wet or bad grass or nothing. The same when we play away. When you ask me about the turf, the same. We need to improve in this week to be good in this pitch, nothing more.”
NYCFC’s next opportunity to grab a second home win and temporarily dispel the demons comes Thursday night when it hosts Real Salt Lake, the final game until a two-week break for the Copa America Centenario. In order to do that, the Blues will need to finish the impressive exhibitions they’ve put up as of late.
Aside from the historic 7-0 drubbing it suffered in a derby against the New York Red Bulls May 21st, NYCFC has put in solid shifts at home.
With the exception being a 0-0 deadlock with Chicago April 10, it’s led in all of the draws it had at home — even holding multi-goal leads against Toronto and Orlando — but hasn’t been able to close it out.
The Orlando collapse showed similarities with two other draws earlier this season. In addition to the 93rd minute equalizer from Molino, the Blues suffered a 91st minute equalizer to Dominic Oduro in a 1-1 draw to Montreal. And just as NYCFC dropped a 2-0 lead to the Lions, it allowed Toronto to come back in a 2-2 draw in its home opener.
And while they didn’t suffer a last-second equalizer to the New England Revolution, the Blues were unable to take advantage of being a man up for the final 38 minutes in a 1-1 draw.
Asked why his team struggles at home, Vieira was unable to muster an answer, noting the strong performances put in by his team for most of the 90 minutes against Orlando and in previous home matches. He did, however, suggest a solution.
“What I think we really need is to be a little bit more ruthless in the 18 yards (penalty area) in the offensive and the defensive side,” Vieira said. “We need to be more ruthless in front of the goal. When we create chances, we have crosses and we don’t have enough bodies inside the box, but at the same time, when we are defending as well, we need to be more ruthless.”
“What I mean with that is we need to be more with a desire to defend, and this is a critical moment of the games and I believe in between the two boxes, our passing, our movement is quite good, but where we really need to improve is in the 18 yards and the 18 yards is the truth of our game.”
The home results haven’t been ideal, but that doesn’t take away from the improvement the club is seeing in year two in MLS.
It’s scored 20 goals in the first 14 games, eight more than last season at this point in the season, leading to an additional seven points that’s propelled them to the fourth spot in the Eastern Conference.
Sitting in the middle of the pack of teams fighting for the six spots in the playoffs, NYCFC is two points with a game in hand from both ends of the spectrum — it trails East leaders Philadelphia for first place and leads DC United, Toronto, New England and Orlando, who are all fighting for the final two playoff spots.
With 20 games in four months remaining in the season, there’s plenty of time for NYCFC’s place in the table to fluctuate as it earns and drops points.
Vieira is confident his team is in a good place with a third of his first season as a head coach having passed.
Working to improve the home form to relieve pressure on his team from fans and the media alike, the Frechman knows if his side keeps dropping points in New York, it must pick them up somewhere else.
“If we don’t get the points at home, we have to get them from somewhere and if we have to take them away from home, we will do it,” he said. “But we are conscious that we need to improve our home performance. But I think when you look at where we are, we are fighting with other teams to be in the playoff and I think you guys (the media) write us off but it’s far away from us to keep up. It will be difficult for every single team in the league here. … But yeah, we have to improve our home games but that doesn’t condition if we will be in the playoff or not.”
Follow Brian Fonseca (@briannnf) on Twitter for updates on NYCFC.
