NYCFC WINLESS STREAK IS OVER! 4 TAKEAWAYS FROM THE 1-0 WIN

Photo courtesy of  Eric Bolte, USA TODAY Sports

Article by Scott Churchson

Columnist and Host of The Sports Den on Spanglish World Networks, Spanglish Sports World & Zingo TV

New York. - Damn it’s been a long time since the last time the New York City Football Club won a match. A full 70 days in fact. For fans of the team, it might as well have felt like 700 days as the team struggled week in and week out, starting out with 4 straight losses, losses in 6 out of 7 and followed by 5 straight ties. All told in those 70 days the team went 0-6-6 to drop all the way to 13th place in the East. Even under the new 9 playoff team play in tournament, they dug themselves a hole. However, with last night’s 1-0 win over home Montreal, a team historically they’ve had success against over the years, it took 30 minutes for the team to generate the lone goal of the night, a dynamite one time to Forward Matias Pellegrini for his first goal in an NYCFC jersey. To save you time (and shamelessly plug one of our sports channels) I’ve included his post game comments along with highlights of that goal here:

For weeks, the team has been showing signs of life that has shown that maybe, just MAYBE, this team isn’t done and there’s hope to be found. So here’s 5 takeaways from not only last night’s win, but also where this team stands as a whole.

4 TAKEAWAYS

1) Lightning Apparently is a Good Thing: The match got off to a late start as lightning posed an issue for both the MLS match but also the Montreal Alouettes CFL game as well (they lost as well, not a good day for Montreal sports) but the match was delayed a solid 90 minutes, forcing both teams to do what they can to stay loose while staying off boredom. But apparently it had an impact, as it may have played a factor in breaking the streak. The lightning might piss off the fans of the North, but you have to admit, but blame luck, God or Asgard.

2) NYCFC Has Been GREAT When It Comes To Defense Of Late. Good defense beats good offense, and to their credit, during this (technically speaking) 6 game unbeaten streak, NYCFC has given up a stingy 4 goals, including 3 Clean Sheets for Luis Barraza, currently sporting an impressive 81.25 save percentage

Photo courtesy of  Eric Bolte, USA TODAY Sports

3) Get the Ball At The Net. Last night NYCFC fired off 7 shots on goal for a third time this season, including 5 in the first half. This was a small issue during the previous 5 matches, where they were averaging just over 3 shot on goal a game.

4) The Yellow Cards Are Still Up. NYCFC sits at 3rd overall in the league with 54 Yellow Cards this season, something that can be attributed to both young and playing an aggressive style, but being 1 behind RBNY & 2 behind league leader Charlotte (who they’re facing Wednesday) this is a consistent concern I’ve maintained with this club for a while.

Coming up Tuesday I’ll preview the NYCFC/Charlotte matchup with 5 stats as the club has a chance to leapfrog the team from the Carolinas and pop as high as 8th in the East if they come away with 3 points.