A pitiful NYCFC fails to score and gives CF Montréal their first win | OneFootball

New York City FC entered this weekend’s game knowing they had to beat CF Montréal.  While they had an impressive win against FC Cincinnati last week, the Pigeons suffered an embarrassing loss against Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC in the U.S. Open Cup.  They were the only MLS side to lose in the Round of 32, so the pressure to win was on full blast. Sadly, and disgracefully, NYCFC failed to win, losing 1-0.

Keaton Parks was unavailable due to his injury he picked up in the Cincinnati match, so the newest player, Aiden O’Neill, started his first game for the Pigeons.  The Aussie does not cure the team’s depth problem, but he should help immensely in the midfield throughout the rest of the season.  He had a decent first start and should start to mesh more game after game.

Meanwhile, Montréal was in last place.  NYCFC was not only pressured to win, but they were expected to win.  Any points dropped would have been deemed a failure.

And that is what the game was.  It was an outrageous failure.  Losing to a team in last place at home opens up every critique that one could think of.  The Boys in Blue should have done better, and honestly, they were okay before the goal that was given up.  But NYCFC lost because they could not score and had a poor second half.

NYCFC's poor showing leads to loss

The match started as a back-and-forth affair, with NYCFC and CF Montréal maintaining possession in their attacking halves.  Offensively, it was slow to start.  There was an incredible chance for the Pigeons to go ahead in the 12th minute, when Alonso Martínez was in front of everyone with just the goalkeeper to deal with.  Jonathan Sirois came off his line to force the ball away, and the Costa Rican went around him, but struck the ball wide of the goal.

Misses like that can come back to haunt a team later on, and it did.  It also did not help that all three shots in the first 20 minutes were from the striker.  This highlights what might be leading to their scoring issues and the lack of offensive output from players who are expected to add to the goal total.

At the same time, Montréal was not playing like they were a last-place team.  They sometimes pressured well, and NYCFC almost gave up a goal in the 27th minute after Justin Haak gave up the ball to Prince Owusu.  Thankfully, Matt Freese got the stop, and Thiago Martins cleared the damage.

In fact, Freese had too much work to do, for he had seven saves throughout the game.  One of his best saves of the night came in the 31st minute, when Giacomo Vrioni’s striker forced the keeper to quickly react.  He had to dive to his right and be on target with his save.  Overall, he had to face 22 shots with eight on target.

Unfortunately, Montréal continued to attack and came out of the locker room after halftime on fire.  And in the 48th minute, Owusu struck first.  A powerful strike from the forward made it impossible for Freese to save his team from going down a goal. That was also the only goal in the match.

After that goal, NYCFC did not play to the level they should have.  The opposition did well to pickpocket the Bronx team and turn over the ball.  Any offensive effort was lackluster, with the clinical finish missing in action.  At some points in the second half, it felt like they were just passing the ball to pass it.  Of course, that was likely not the case, but that is what it looked like.

It also felt like the hunger to win was not there.  With the exception of the goal, they continued to perform well defensively.  The attack was pitiful, though.  There was the shot by Martínez in the 72nd that looked like, for a split second, he could score with Sirois coming off his line.  But again, the stop was made.

Speaking about the Costa Rican, he had six shots on the night and had both shots on target.  To put this in perspective, he had 66.67% of NYCFC’s nine shots.  More is needed from the other players.  They cannot rely on the striker all the time.  Yes, Martínez missed a couple of good chances, like the shot mentioned earlier in the first half, but it needs to be a team effort.

The sad part is that players like Haak, Freese, and Martins played extremely well.  The lone goal given up was one of those where luck and the perfect shot mixed in.  More than likely, there is not one goalkeeper in Major League Soccer who would have made that save.  Some might argue the backline allowed the 22 shots, but the keeper and his backline kept the team in the match.

Once again, NYCFC lost because they could not find the back of the net.  The second half was not their best either offensively.  Additionally, there were too many missed passes.  Credit must be given when it is due, and Montréal played well.  But if the Pigeons would have played like they did against Cincinnati, then maybe they would have gotten the desired result.

Alas, NYCFC allowed the Canadian side to earn their first win of the season.  This was a disgraceful home game, and Pascal Jansen has to figure out how to unlock his team.