The New York City Football Club faced the offensive juggernaut known as Inter-Miami and scored a late second goal to pull out a 1-1 draw against Lionel Messi in his first match at Yankee Stadium.
On a spectacular last day of summer, the 2pm match started with a flurry, as both shots exchanged shots in the first five minutes, first as NYC’s Santiago Rodriguez fired a low shot just wide followed by Messi with a freekick that went just wide. Shortly afterwards Goalkeeper Matt Freese was forced to deny Luiz Suarez on a shot at close range in a flurry of activity that brought a roar from the crowd that seemed to drown out the influx of Inter-Miami fans supporting the Herons and bringing the crowd to over 44,000 (more on that later).
The second half finally saw the first scoring by either side as Miami’s Leo Compana was fed by Jordi Alba in the 75th minute to break the 0-0 score and give Miami the lead. However it was 5 minutes into added time that NYCFC work work it’s magic. On a corner in the waning seconds of the match Santiago Rodriguez fed a header to Defender James Sands whose shot landed on the left side of the net for his first ever MLS goal and pulling the game even at 1-1 and just seconds later, a 1-1 final. Head Coach Nick Cushing spoke highly of Sands after the match, saying, “It’s really important for us and he should be really proud. He’s a Homegrown [player]. He is our player. He is somebody that, this year, he’s really shown his quality. If you look at data and the statistics of his game, he wins the most tackles, the most duels and he regains the most balls in MLS and that is a huge thing to have on your team.”
Next up NYCFC has their road Derby in Harrison NJ against the New York Red Bulls. RBNY currently sits in 4th place in the east while NYCFC dropped to 7th with the draw.
5 STATS
1) Campana’s goal was in fact the first ever goal by Inter-Miami on the road against NYCFC. Inter-Miami is still winless against the Bronx club, currently at 4 losses and now a draw in 5 matches.
2) Inter-Miami had 5 Yellow Cards on the pitch for the match, keeping them at 4th in the league with 81 Yellow Cards on the season.
3) NYCFC will be without Forward Santiago Rodriguez for the match against RBNY. Rodriguez picked up his 8th Yellow Card of the season making him illegible for the match for his second YC of the season.
4) NYCFC continues to have challenges in the second half. Although only one goal was scored in the second half, they have allowed 9 in the past 5 second halves.
5) Lionel Messi was held to 1 shot and 0 shots on goal in the match against NYCFC. That was the first MLS match that has occurred for the Argentinian star.
About the author – Scott Churchson is the head honcho and occasional toilet cleaner for Stream Punk Entertainment. He’s also 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.