The Boys in Blue face a Montréal CF side two points off the bottom of the Eastern Conference on Saturday in Quebec. New York City FC (NYCFC) needs an upturn in form after a five-match winless streak in MLS.
The Pigeons are traveling north after playing out a “crazy” 4-4 draw against FC Cincinnati mid-week at Yankee Stadium, according to Jessica Charman, the MLS play-by-play announcer who called the game. The Boys in Blue gave up a two-goal lead within seven minutes of added time.
“It was sheer dominance in phases of the play from New York City — [they had] spells where they could have scored four or five goals in quick succession,” Charman told amNY. “But it seems to be a similar trend at the moment where, ever since the good game against Colorado, they are not putting games to bed and allowing opponents to linger around.”
NYCFC has scored 19 goals across nine matches so far, the most in the East, but there were times it seemed like City were trying to move the ball around to break the Orange and Blue down and find the perfect moment instead of swinging a ball into the box and trying to catch Cincinnati out early. It was how Nicolás Fernández Mercau scored his first of the match, when Aiden O’Neill swung in an early cross from the left flank that goalkeeper Roman Celentano spilled.
“There were moments where the connection was amazing,” Charman said. “When you look back at the first three goals that were scored, the ball movement and patterns of play in the build-up were brilliant.”
Kevin O’Toole, after the match, said that scoring four goals should be enough but “we’ve got to do better defensively.”
For all four goals, a Cincinnati man was left in space. It was glaringly clear for Kévin Denkey’s first goal, where he managed to volley the ball in from the six-yard box with no markers around.
Although there was a good response after, with Fernández Mercau scoring his second of the match, giving up a clean sheet motioned to Cincinnati that the Boys in Blue could be broken down. That belief held all the way to the end.
Montréal is almost trending in the opposite direction. Four consecutive losses saw former head coach Marco Donadel lose his job, and his interim replacement, Phillipe Eullaffroy, started his tenure with a resounding 4-1 win against the Red Bulls at home.
Le CFM’s star striker, Prince Owusu, scored a penalty and picked up a hat-trick of assists in the rout, and will be trying to add his five-goal tally against a vulnerable NYCFC defense.
“I don’t want to compare him and Denkey, because they’re very different players, but if Owusu finds himself in the space that Denkey did, he would love those opportunities as well,” Charman said.
Montréal might still be in its honeymoon phase with Eullaffroy, but Charman believes “on paper, it feels like the ideal game, other than the fact that it’s away, for New York City to get back into it.”
