NYCFC Ties Toronto To Keep Unbeaten Streak Going

 

NYCFC's Nico Fernandez Mercau converting a penalty kick early in the match. Photo by Jason Schott.

New York City Football Club played to a 1-1 tie with Toronto FC on Friday night at Yankee Stadium.

NYCFC's unbeaten streak is now at seven games, including five wins, including the prior three games heading into this match. They are now 7-5-6, with 26 points, in fifth place in the MLS Eastern Conference. They are just three points behind third-place New England (9-2-5, 29 points).

For the third straight match, NYCFC wasted no time scoring.

Toronto's Richie Laryea took down an NYCFC player in the box in the sixth minute and was awarded a yellow card.

NYCFC was given a penalty kick, which took some time to set up, bet when it happened, Nico Fernandez Mercau buried it in the top right of the net to make it 1-0 in the 9th minute.

It was Fernandez Mercau's 13th goal of the season, and he is now tied for first place in the MLS Golden Boot race with FC Dallas forward Petar Musa and former Chicago Fire forward Hugo Cuypers.

Fernandez Mercau has been especially good on set pieces, as six of his goals have resulted from them, with four on PKs and two on free kicks.

It stayed that way until the last ticks of the first half when Toronto FC scored in the seventh minute of extra time. 

Djordje Mihailovic scored on a ricochet off a save by NYCFC goalkeeper Matt Freeze to tie the match at 1.

Each team had a few quality chances in the second half, but couldn't find the winning goal. 

Possession for the match was nearly even, as NYCFC had the narrow edge at 52.9 percent, and each club  had five shots on goal, with NCYFC having 16 overall shots to Toronto's 13.

When Hannes Wolf entered in the 59th minute, he became the fastest player in NYCFC history to join the Century Club, as it was his 100th appearance for the team.

NYCFC Head Coach Pascal Jansen said of the result after the game, "In the first half, the control was not as good as I would have liked it to be. We scored an early goal. Obviously, this is one of our trademarks - one in transition where Benie (Traore) gets away and he sets up the penalty with Agu (Agustin Ojeda). We are working toward being that good that if you dominate until that penalty is there, you should be dominating afterward as well. So you have to keep a high rhythm of play. I thought we slowed things down. We gave Toronto FC way too big of a piece of the game after we scored the penalty...In the second half we tried to make it more intense, play a little faster. But then again, Toronto had the goal just before halftime, so they gained a little more confidence. And that is what you see throughout the game because you do not see a team, in my opinion, that is suffering from 11 games that they did not win. But we gave them way too much confidence in this game. So that is something that is on our end."

Toronto FC is now 3-8-7, with 17 points, in 12th place in the MLS Eastern Conference. They have won just three of their 18 matches do far this season.