One of the New York City Football Club’s most glaring issues reared it’s ugly head again as the club jumped out early, only to squander a lead and, in this case, end in a 2-2 draw against the visiting Chicago Fire. On a simply beautiful August night at Citi Field the squad jumped out to an early lead as Alonso Martinez picked up not one, but 2 goals inside the first 22 minutes to pick up his team leading 10th goal on the season (11 if you including Leagues Cup), first on a right footed shot to the right side of the net 15 minutes in, followed by a second just 7 minutes later after a slight confusion in the box between Martinez and midfielder Keaton Parks lead to Martinez burying a second right footed shot past goalkeeper Chris Brady for his second goal of the match. Parks would get credit for the assist on the goal.
It’s the second half late where the issues for the club returned. First came 78 minutes in after Hugo Cuypers scored his 9th of the year from the right side of the box, followed 16 minutes later by an absolute back breaker after Defender Tayvon Grey was called for a handball just inside the left side of the box after his arms went up in a clear block with the elbow. This lead to a Brian Gutierrez penalty kick past goalkeeper Matt Freese on the left side of the net for the equalizer. Freeze predicted the correct way, but the shot was two quick, giving the Fire their second goal of the half.
NYCFC attempted to scramble to pick up a third goal, but in the end, the club lost 2 points and was forced to settle for a draw at home against a team, historically, they’ve had great success against.
Thoughts on the match – NYCFC did EXACTLY what they were supposed to do, coming out quickly against a Mid Fire team that hadn’t played a match in 3 weeks and, unsurprisingly, had some rust. However this second half issue is one that must be resolved going forward if the team expected to succeed come playoff time. However with a young team there seems to be an anxiety when the club is up late in games, leading to mistakes while trying to hold the lead. In a lucky twist of Enemy of my Enemy is my friend, Derby rival the New York Red Bulls also had a draw against 6th place Charlotte, leaving NYCFC still in 5th place with 39 points and 8 games remaining. Next up is a quick rematch against Columbus who they fell to in Leagues Cup play just a week ago in a PK shootout.
5 STATS:
1) As mentioned, Alonso Martinez is now at 11 goals on the season, including Leagues Cup. This has been accomplished in 23 matches this season.
2) NYCFC had 12 corner kicks in this match, the most they’ve had since the 2019 season when they also had 12.
3) Matt Freese save percentage remains second in the league at 77.1, behind only John McCarthy of the LA Galaxy at 77.4.
4) NYCFC sits at 12th in the league at 13.31 shots per game. Their shots on goal per game is slightly lower at 4.46.
5) Facing Columbus again just after Leagues Cup will be challenging as the squad has just 2 wins in 14 matches against the team from Ohio with wins coming in 2017 and 2021.
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.