Wolf Roars, But Atlanta Scorches NYCFC In Second Half

 

Hannes Wolf (17, at right), celebrates one of his goals. Provided by NYCFC.

New York City Football Club suffered their toughest loss of the season, as they squandered a two-goal lead to fall to Atlanta United FC, 4-3, on Saturday night.

NYCFC now has a record of 2-2-2, with eight points, on the young season. They return home to Yankee Stadium next Sunday, April 6, at 3 p.m. against Minnesota United FC.

Hannes Wolf got NYCFC an early lead in this one, as he buried a shot from the center of the box into the left corner in the 15th minute.

Atlanta tied it late in the first half, as Alexey Miranchuk broke through in the 42nd minute. Emmanuel Latte Lath (what would Chris Berman do with his name?) and Saba Lobjanidze earned assists on the goal.

NYCFC got the lead back seemingly immediately in the second half, as Alonso Martinez buried a penalty kick in the 48th minute.

Martinez now has four goals on the season, and he has now scored in three straight matches, the third time he has achieved that streak, with the first two instances coming last season.

This was also his 20th goal in 34 matches with NYCFC - the second-fastest to that number in team history to David Villa, who had 20 goals in 32.

Three minutes later, Wolf roared again, as he buried another shot from the top of the box, assisted by Julian Fernandez, to make it 3-1 NYCFC

Wolf now has three goals on the season, and this was his first brace with NYCFC. It also marked his first goals against Atlanta.

In the 62nd minute, Atlanta got one goal back, as they crashed the box, and it was credited as an own goal to NYCFC's Keaton Parks.

Then, in the 75th minute, Xande Silva found Miguel Almiron in the center of the box, and he headed it home to tie the game at 3.

Ten minutes later, Atlanta got a boost from Latte Lath, as he buried a shot from the left side to put Atlanta ahead, 4-3.

Atlanta made the most of their chances, as they scored three times on six of their shots on goal (they had 14 overall and the own goal doesn't count as a shot.)

NYCFC had seven shots overall, but five of them were on target, and they scored three, so their ratio was on par with Atlanta.

COACH'S COMMENTS: NYCFC Head Coach Pascal Jansen addressed the media after the game:

Thoughts on the second half: “[This result] is something that we didn't anticipate, especially if you look at our squad coming out of the dressing room, getting goals within 10 minutes the way we did in this away game. That should make your opponent quite nervous, and I think they were nervous. We had the momentum then, obviously, then there's that own goal, which brings a little bit more energy to the opponent, but still there was nothing going on. Then there's a phase where we switch off defensively and we allow them to get crosses into the box, and we don't defend the box well enough like we did last week in Columbus, and you get punished for a few errors made.” 

On Forward Alonso Martínez's performance: “If guys do well and score goals like Alonso [Martínez] does at the moment, [it’s a positive thing]. But it's also a big compliment to the rest of the team. We get him in those positions. We provide him [with opportunities]. He makes good moves. Of course, he gets some good situations in the box going. So, it says a lot about the team and the team spirit. We allow each other to score the goals and everybody's very happy when we score a goal. But being the number nine of the squad is obviously a situation that Alonso realizes, and he wants to live up to that expectation.”