The home team in the MLS is Back tournament prevailed on Tuesday with two early first half goals, all but sealing the fate of New York City Football Club. NYCFC looked disorganized from the start and Orlando took full advantage with two quick goals by Chris Mueller to drive a nail into a tournament coffin for NYCFC.
Twitter was all ablaze about the line up NYCFC released shortly before the game. With star midfielder, Maxi Moralez, out for several weeks new coach, Ronny Deila was seemingly starting a string of defensive midfield players to make up for the loss of the offensive minded Moralez. It was a head-scratcher to be sure but fans were hoping that Deila had seen something everyone else had missed. In the end it turned out to be a bad decision as NYCFC looked disorganized from the start. Chris Mueller was completely unmarked on a free kick from outside the box and scored just four minutes into the game. he added to his total by notching another goal when he was left completely open inside the box in the tenth minute. Deila later admitted that the team was not performing like they had drawn it up. “The first half an hour is not good enough. I have to take responsibility for it because it seems like we weren’t clear enough on how we want to play. We didn’t show what we want to do in the first thirty minutes. After that, we changed a lot of things and we looked more dangerous.”
Things did start to turn after the water break in the first half. James Sands was pushed more forward into the midfield and the team reverted back to more of a 4-4-3. Jesus Medina brought NYCFC back to life with a nicely placed shot in the 38th minute and City went into the half with some hope and signs of life. The second half proved much of the same as city again and again tested Orlando’s Pedro Gallese in goal. The keep held his own and kept Orlando in the lead, but as NYCFC pushed farther and farther up the pitch in search of a goal it left them exposed to a counter. Orlando did just that t great effect in the 81st minute when Tesho Akindele headed the ball home off a parried Sean Johnson save. It was Johnson who summed up NYCFC’s effort the best after the game. “It’s not ideal being in that situation. We step on the pitch to win and not to concede goals. It’s not a good feeling, but there is a lot of game to be played. We did our best to claw back into the game before halftime and gave ourselves a chance…we can’t start slow. We have to be more tuned in and eliminate those early opportunities for opponents.”
Now Orlando can enjoy the third game in the group confident that they are moving on while NYCFC have to prove something against Miami. They have to prove they are better than their current record and prove they can be the dominant team they were last year under this new coach. According to fivethirtyeight.com, NYCFC have a 17% chance of advancing and even though their chances are slim they need to prove to fans that they have the heart and drive to compete this year. Coming close just is not good enough.
New York City Football Club
Orlando City SC
