The New York City Football Club came out of the international break in disappointing fashion, dropping a 3-2 match to the Columbus Crew at Yankee Stadium. The club, which had won 5 straight went up against a Columbus team that had a small streak of their own, winning 3 straight on the road going into the break. In a match that was heavily dominated by Columbus, firing off 12 shots on goal (a high against NYCFC this season), the match hit it’s first massive moment when Mitja Ilenic received a red card in minute 39 for a denial of a Columbus goal scoring chance, setting NYCFC down a man for the rest of the match.
Despite that, NYCFC would be the team to score first just 5 minutes later as Agustin Ojeda would give the club a 1-0 lead going into halftime. But Columbus, showing why they’re the reigning MLS champion (with a head coach that’s a popular choice to take over as coach of the USMNT) picked up 3 straight goals in the first 20 minutes of the second half, including a 3rd goal on a penalty kick due to a questionable call on Hannes Wolf on the goal line leading to a Cucho PK and a 3-1 lead for the Crew.
Despite being down a man, NYCFC would close the gap to 3-2 in the 86th minute as Santi Rodriguez would pick up his 7th goal of the year, which, despite a mind blowing 14 minutes of added time, would still be the final.
Next up the club has 2 road matches in a week, first against the LA Galaxy Wednesday night, followed by a match in Nashville on Saturday. As of this writing, the team is still 3rd in the East with the rest of the league playing on Saturday.
5 STATS
1) First, an apology. I feel in hindsight I should have asked the officials about the decision to give a PK to Hannes Wolf in the second half. Alexis DaSilva reviewed the call a total of 48 times (it was counted) and as Pool Reporter I f-cking blew it not asking about that and have been pissed at myself since. Lessons learned, changes made. But as a stat, this was the second PK on Matt Freese this season, the previous one a save against in the season opener against Charlotte.
2) Santi Rodriguez’s goal as mentioned was his 7th of the year. This is also his career high, having scored 6 back in 2019 with Nacional in Uruguay.
3) The Red Card against Mitja Ilenic was the team’s 3rd this season. That puts them tied for 4th in the league. Seattle is tops with a whopping 7.
4) This is the 3rd match in 4 that Columbus has scored 3 goals. All 4 matches were on the road.
5) In the last 5 full seasons, the 4th place team in the East has ended the season with 50-55 points to secure home field for at least the first round. NYCFC currently sits at 29 points through 17 and are on track for 58 points for the year.
About the author – Scott Churchson has been an actor in every way for the past 13 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, a mother-in-law who just moved in and is just a simple man trying to make his way in the universe.