NYCFC Stunned By St. Louis Late

 

NYCFC celebrates Hannes Wolf's goal. Photo by Jason Schott.

New York City Football Club was thisclose to a solid win on Saturday night at Citi Field, but St. Louis City SC scored a goal in extra time to force the 1-1 draw.

NYCFC is now 3-2-1, with 11 points, in a three-way tie for second place with Charlotte in Inter Miami in the MLS Eastern Conference. Nashville is in first with 13 points and a 4-1-1 record.

After a scoreless first half in which NYCFC had three A+ chances at a goal, it didn't take long for NYCFC to break through in the second.

NYCFC wrestled control of the ball at midfield in the 51st minute, as Keaton Parks sent it ahead to Hannes Wolf, who dropped it off to Maxi Moralez just outside the box, and Maxi sent it back to Wolf once he was well into the box, and he buried it to make it 1-0.

This was Wolf's second goal of the second, and first at home. He is now ninth in all-time in NYCFC franchise history with 19 goals scored and goal contributions with 33. He also became the first NYCFC player to score against St. Louis.

Moralez is now in a tie for first in the MLS with five assists recorded. He also continues to extend his record as the oldest player in NYCFC history to start and play in match, as well as record an assist, at 39 years and 36 days old.

NYCFC held the lead deep into extra time, but St. Louis was making a late move as they controlled play in the 96th minute.

St. Louis was deep in NYCFC territory when Lukas MacNaughton fired one towards the net from the left side. Brendan McSorley headed it with a flicking motion that sent the ball at an odd angle towards NYCFC goalkeeper Matt Freese, who got a handle on it, but it spun out of his hands and in.

This would have been Freese's second clean sheet of the season, as he had two saves before allowing the equalizer. St. Louis had 12 shots overall on the night.

Matt Freese (at right) fires the ball downfield after a NYCFC defensive stop. Photo by Jason Schott.

NYCFC controlled the game, as evidenced by its 62 percent possession and pouring in 14 shots, 7 of which were on goal. 

NYCFC is now 12-5-7 in their 24 overall games at Citi Field, and they have scored 34 goals, while allowing 29. They have notched nine clean sheets, so this one would have been a milestone number.

This was just the second all-time MLS Regular Season match between the clubs, of which St. Louis now has a win and a tie. NYCFC has now played 14 different Western Conference teams, with a solid record of 34-19-21.

COACH'S COMMENTS: NYCFC Head Coach Pascal Jansen spoke on these topics in his postgame press conference:

On the late goal, and the locker room's reaction: "It feels like a loss. It's one point, but it feels like a loss. When we came back into the dressing room, it was very quiet. We always finish up like we always do, win, draw, or lose. The message was (about the late conceded goal), this is on us. You have several moments where you can decide the game. We didn't play our A-game overall, but we had good phases and phases that were less good. To concede the way we did in the final part of the game is something that is simply, how would I put it, impossible. Shouldn't be happening. You have to put your life on the line. You have to make sure you keep this ball outside of the box, block it but we didn't. It's a gamble.The guy runs and gets the first touch and gets it in goal, and they get a point form a game where we should have killed it off in an earlier stage."

On who's responsible for allowing the late goal, and the overall performance of the team: "This is on all of us. You could see that's something that already took place in the first half as well, when we are not accurate enough, not solid enough in possession. You saw multiple moments in the first half, also where we lose the easy passes and it becomes more of a transitional game. The phases where you see that we have the control, we're very solid and very clean and accurate in possession. We were a little bit in a hurry in the first half in order to create those moments, instead of making two or three extra passes to open up the spaces that we like to play in and become less transitional. The moment itself at the final stage of the game is on all of us because the pressure is there. It's only one goal difference, so they don't have anything to lose. They bring more bodies up front. Then it's two things: either you stay very solid in possession so they can push all the bodies forward that they want to, but you stay very solid in possession, or you defend with your life. That is something that was neither of both of them because we had two, three moments even from transition ourselves to kill the game. We kept them alive."