Sean Johnson stretches out to make a save in NYCFC’s match against Real Salt Lake in Utah. (Photo Credit: NYCFC)
NEW YORK — A familiar scene, one that had plagued the nightmares of New York City FC last season but seemed to be a thing of the past, reared its ugly head once again Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.
Despite dominating the visitors and creating a plethora of chances, the Boys in Blue allowed the visiting New England Revolution to hang on late into the match, their one-goal lead seeming more vulnerable the closer the clock ticked towards the 90th and final minute.
With four minutes remaining in regulation, that lead would vanquish, a magical moment from Kelyn Rowe and Xavier Kouassi putting the ball past Sean Johnson to knot the match up at 2-2, a scoreline which would prove to be the final result.
It was the first late goal that compromised points from NYCFC, a problem which ran rampant in a stretch early in 2016 in which the club from the Bronx dropped six points in three matches thanks to last-gasp equalizers suffered at the hands of Toronto, Montreal and Orlando City.
Seeing as it took two months for the first collapse at the eleventh hour to occur, something that took two weeks last year, the Boys in Blue aren’t hitting the panic button quite yet.
“No, (we’re not concerned). It’s only one game, we’ve been doing really well this season,” said winger Jack Harrison, who opened the scoring against the Revolution with his second goal in as many games. “No one is to blame, it’s a team thing. We just gave up an unfortunate late goal and I don’t think it’s anything to be concerned about. But we will definitely look over it and see what we can do to prevent it in the future.”
As good as that Kouassi goal was, it arrived from an issue head coach Patrick Vieira has addressed consistently with the media in the past couple of weeks — a lack of concentration in defense.
He even substituted Harrison for Frederic Brillant, a centerback, to control the match and prove help in the back as the Revolution added more and more numbers into attack.
It would backfire, though, as it was Brillant who headed the ball out to Rowe, the winger then controlling with his chest then his shin before finally whipping in an inch perfect cross to Kouassi.
“We’d been really naive with the way we defended today,” Vieira said, wrapping up his thoughts on his side’s lack of focus at the back.
Johnson, who has had a solid first few months in replacing Josh Saunders in goal, agreed with his manager’s assessment.
“We just really, really gotta fine tune, communicate even more with each other and sorting out problems and putting out things as they happen,” he said. “For me, that’s the most important thing. Really just, when the game is on the line in tough moments, being a little more sharp mentally. I think we’ll sort it out.”
Of course, the possibility of a late slip was avoidable had NYCFC finished the multitude of chances it created throughout the afternoon.
The home side controlled possession and vastly outshot the Revolution, forcing Knighton into three saves and his defenders into blocking four shots. But what counts are not the chances made but those capitalized on, something Vieira is all too familiar with after learning it last season.
“If you miss all the chances that you create, then the game would be different,” Vieira said. “I think what is important in a game is to create the chances and with the quality of players we have, we’re always going to score goals … We have a good team and good players, so we just have to find a balance between scoring goals and conceding goals.”
Wednesday’s match is done, nothing could be done to regain the two points lost by NYCFC. All there is to do is to look forward, improving to ensure it becomes a one-time occurence rather than the stretch it became a year ago.
Another chance arrives quickly for the Boys in Blue, who host the Philadelphia Union Saturday at one. If they grab control of that one, know they’ll look to put the result out of doubt early, preventing the chance of another bucket of ice water falling on their head in the dying moments.
“Games that we control important parts of the match — you look at this match, you look at (the 2-1 loss at Real Salt Lake) — I think you look at games we have to find a way to get a result,” Johnson said. “It’s not going to be pretty at times, it’s going to take us to do what’s necessary in the moment. We may not be able to pass out every single time and we’ve discussed that as a unit and we’ve gotta just find a way. Just finding a way is what we’ve gotta do now.”
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Follow Brian Fonseca on Twitter @briannnnf for updates. Email him at brianfilipefonseca@gmail.com with questions, concerns, tips or story ideas.
