Leagues Cup: NYCFC Taken Out By Toluca

 

Toluca fans celebrating their tying goal late in the first half. Photo by Jason Schott.

New York City Football Club lost a hard-fought battle with Deportivo Toluca FC, 2-1, in the Leagues Cup at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night.

Since NYCFC was only able to win one of their three games in Phase One of the tournament, they likely will not be moving on to the quarterfinals, as they needed to win this game, in which they were the road team, and get a whole lot of help.

NYCFC got on the board early on a play that developed when they took control of the ball at midfield. Andres Perea got a header to start it off, then took the ball down the left side to Agustin Ojeda, who sent it to Martinez, who came down the center of the field amidst four Toluca defenders, and he was able to get a shot off that was just out of reach of the left hand of Toluca goalkeeper Luis Garcia, and into the right corner of the net for the 1-0 lead.

With the goal, Martinez now has 37 goal contributions - 32 goals, 5 assists - tied for eighth in NYCFC history with former defender Anton Tinnerholm (9 G, 28 A).

NYCFC celebrates their opening goal. Photo by Jason Schott.

In the 37th minute, Toluca tied it on a wild sequence that happened in front of their fans in the stands along what is the first base line for baseball. 

Helinho came down the left side, and sent in a cross to Paulinho, who sent in off the crossbar, and it took a high bounce to Jesus Ricardo Angulo, who amidst the frenzy, slipped by NYCFC goalkeeper Matt Freese to fire it in.

Two minutes later, Toluca threaded the needle, as Jesus Gallardo sent a grass-hugging pass through the center of the pitch to Angulo, who dropped it off to Paulinho, who slipped by the NYCFC defense to bury it, but he was ruled offside.

A lengthy VAR review followed, and the call was overturned, giving Toluca the 2-1 lead in the 39th minute. NYCFC players, especially Freese, pleaded with the referees after the review, pointing up at the board, but to no avail. (pictured below)

Photo by Jason Schott.

The first half got more intense as it went on, to the point it ended with a fight after Toluca’s Marcel Ruiz kicked a ball away within inches of a prone Maxi Moralez, who was knocked down by Marcel outside of the box.

The fight went on for a few minutes, and when calm was restored, the referee had to make his way around the field to hand out four yellow cards, to NYCFC’s Aiden O’Neill and Stravinja Tanasijevic, and Toluca’s Jesus Gallardo and Federico Pereira.

NYCFC had a big chance in the 61st minute when NYCFC put some pressure on, with Hannes Wolf firing one in that the Toluca goalkeeper, Luis Garcia, could not corral and it went about 10 yards past the box, where Mitja Ilenic teed up a one-timer that was inches wide and hit the side of the net.

The other massive chance NYCFC had came in the 70th minute when Wolf came along the left side, dropped it off to Julian Fernandez, who flicked it back to Martinez, who fired it in, and it rang off the crossbar.

NYCFC Head Coach Pascal Jansen said of the match, “What I saw was a very good start from our side when we scored the goal. We were good in balance with each other because there were two good teams on the pitch today, but we were slightly in favor at that moment. We controlled the game. Unfortunately, we had to make a sub in the first half with Tayvon Gray coming off, and then we had a moment of less control in that area, and we got punished for it immediately because the quality is there from the opponent, especially how the second goal came about. That can raise your eyebrows, at least. It happened and you always have to look at yourselves, and that’s what we do because we have no excuses. There was a moment there where we were not completely alert, and we got punished for it. In the second half, we showed a lot of courage going forward trying to make that second goal again and we got one or two big moments in order to do that, but unfortunately, we didn’t score that goal.”