The New York City Football Club had a golden opportunity slip through their fingers as a Andre Blake-less Philadelphia Union trounced NYCFC 4-1 at Yankee Stadium. On a beautiful night in September NYCFC is now winless in their last 5 home matches against the club down the Turnpike. The match turned ugly early, after the Union picked up a 3 spot on the league’s top save percentage goalkeeper Matt Freese by the 32nd minute, after Tai Baribo, Mikael Uhre & Daniel Gazdag took the energy out of the Bronx crowd in lightning fast fashion. Alonso Martinez, the lone bright spot in the match scored his 12th of the season 5 minutes into added time to at least cut the deficit to 3-1.
However the second half struggles continued after goals by Jakob Glesnes and Jose Bueno at 74 & 85 respectively gave the Union a 5-1 win, launching them into 9th place in the East at 33 points which NYCFC remains in 6th for the moment at 40.
Next up for both squads: NYCFC remains at home as they take on Lionel Messi and Inter-Miami while the Union have a Sunday match at home against DC United.
5 STATS
1) This was the first time that the club has given up 5 goals or more since November 2016.
2) NYCFC has now given up 8 2nd half goals in its past 4 matches.
3) Outside of their Leagues Cup run, the club is now winless in their last 7, going 0W-2L-5D & just 2 wins since June.
4) With the loss, their chances of getting a first round match at home have diminished to a mere 11%, per PlayoffStatus.com. Playoffs are still likely, but odds give it a 59% chance they’ll land in 6th or even 7th now due to the challenging schedule ahead.
5) With the upcoming match against Inter-Miami, NYCFC has faced the Herons 4 times at home, going 4W-0L-0D. Meanwhile Inter-Miami is the only team in MLS with 2 losses or less on the road, going 9W-2L-3W in 14 road matches this season.
About the author – Scott Churchson has been an actor in every way for the past 14 years, from BG to stand in to stunts and principal, a sports writer for the past 4 and is one of the people that created Stream Punk Entertainment. He’s married to a veterinarian, has a cat with three working legs and is just a simple man trying to make his way in the universe.