Five Points: Frustration – OurSports Central

September 19, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS)
New York City FC News Release

New York City Football Club suffered a disappointing defeat against Philadelphia Union on Wednesday.

Goals from Tai Baribo, Mikael Uhre, Dániel Gazdag, Jakob Glesnes, and Jesús Bueno claimed victory for the visitors, while Alonso Martínez was on the scoresheet for City in first-half stoppage time.

Here are Five Points from the game…

A Difficult Night

There’s no shying away from the fact the result was a tough one to take.

A heavy defeat at home, unfortunate costly errors, set-piece pain, and frustration in the final third… it was a challenging evening for everyone.

Facing one of the top scoring sides in the East – and a team desperate to climb back into playoff contention – City were punished for a series of mistakes and missed chances, in what turned out to be a bad day at the office all round.

With five games of the regular season to go, the Boys in Blue must dust themselves off and rally to iron out the errors – and fast.

“It’s a really difficult night,” Nick Cushing admitted. “The three goals come from three moments, errors that we don’t usually give, and we have to fix that – but we have to fix both ends. It’s not about defense or offense, it’s about New York, and it’s about us getting back to winning ways by tightening that screw and reacting on Saturday.”

Punished

Starting the day outside of the playoff picture, Philadelphia headed into the fixture in desperate need of three points, and were clinical in front of goal in the Bronx, netting five of their seven shots on target.

With their three top scorers Gazdag, Uhre, and Baribo on target in a ruthless first-half spell, the visitors left City with a mountain to climb at the break.

Then, with the home side chasing the game in the second period, Jim Curtin’s men dealt the killer blow, finding success through another set-piece, before Bueno completed the scoring on the counter.

Final Third Frustration

A testing night for the City backline saw Philadelphia capitalize on defensive lapses – but it proved to be an equally frustrating showing in the offensive third for the home side.

Dominant in possession (61.5%), the Boys in Blue recorded more than double the number of chances Philadelphia managed, registering a total of 26 shots in the game – with nine of those on target.

Pressing for a route back into the clash, New York found teenage Union goalkeeper Andrew Rick in fine form – and crashed two efforts off the woodwork through Keaton…