New England Revolution 1 – 0 New York City FC
Although some interesting moments in between, last night’s match was nothing to write home about. New York did dominate possession at times, but New England created more dangerous situations, and ended up capitalizing on one.
Saturday, 18 July 2015
Although Frank Lampard had to sit out – yet again – on this game due to his calf-strain injury, we at MLSGoals were actually looking forward to this meeting between these 2 Major League Soccer Eastern Conference sides.
New York still finding its feet and ranked now ranked 9th in the MLS Eastern Conference (5-9-6) and New England now ranked 5th at the same Major League Soccer Conference (7-9-6).
NYCFC appear to be gaining momentum, and although a tie in their last match with tons of MLS goals (4-4 with Toronto FC), this MLS expansion side is displaying brilliant soccer lately.
New England on the other hand has been looking to end a 5-game losing streak. And with the home-side advantage and a lot on the line, this should have been a pretty good night. Again, we were expecting a lot of action and many MLS goals scored.
Sadly, it did not turn out that way. Although not boring, far from it actually, the game didn’t produce any potential excitement for the most part. But not for lack of both MLS sides trying, both teams actually tried hard.
Probably the best chances of the game for NYCFC were 3 minutes in, with David Villa sending a back-healed ball to Thomas McNamara, who shot across from the left to Patrick Mullis for a header (2’). And shortly thereafter, New York’s loan from Manchester City Angelino got an assist from David Villa to the outside of the box but misses to the right (3’). New York did continue to push and appeared strong in the first few minutes, with yet another missed attempt by Patrick Mullins (10’).
However, the 1st, and only goal of the match came from New England’s Lee Nguyen. And in fairness, it was an impressive goal of a team that seemed to be perfectly aligned in the opposition’s territory (not really the New England we have been seeing losing in the past 5 MLS season games).
Japanese midfielder Daigo Kobayashi back heals the ball to Diego Fagundez, who then shots it to Nguyen to the left side of the box. Lee Nguyen keeps his composure despite NYCFC’s defensive pressure. He manages to escape New York’s Medhi Ballouchy and stabilizes the ball to deliver a right-footed shot into New York’s Goal (12’).
New England Revolution 1 – 0 New York Football Club
NYCFC did continue to fight and look for the equalizer throughout the 1st half, but things have gone from bad to worse with New York’s midfielder, Ned Grabavoy being shown the red card and sent off (55’). This, due to keeping his leg too high in the air and ending up kicking New England’s Kobayashi in the thigh.
Although NYCFC did continue to defend and even try to create chances in an impressive way, especially being 1-man down; it failed to create enough opportunities and capitalize.
Overall, New England produced 14 shots, of which only 4 were on target; vs. New York with 9 shots and 3 on target. New York also had better possession, and even dominated ball possession at times, with 54.9% overall possession.
It could have all gone an entirely different way if the Guests from New York were to capitalize on the chances in created in the first few minutes of this MLS game.
All in all, although NYCFC possessed the ball more and was more accurate in both shots and passing; hosts New England was the side that created more dangerous situations, and even managed to capitalize on one of those chances.
