New York City FC enjoyed a memorable evening on Saturday with a 6-0 win against D.C. United.
Here are Five Points from the biggest win in Club history.
Quick Start
If Thiago Andrade was looking to etch his name into the NYCFC history books he did just that on Saturday.
The Brazilian scored the second-fastest goal in club history against D.C. United, taking just 36 seconds to find the back of the net. This comes after his sensational stoppage-time winner against the same team back in June.
While Thiago will grab the headlines for his goal, the speed of the strike underpins a theme of the Club’s season, with NYCFC now scoring 22 first-half goals this season. To be 3-0 up after 11 minutes was not only the perfect way to dispel the idea of nervousness, but also a great way to start this run of important games.
Our advice: get to your seat early when watching NYCFC, you never know what you might miss.
Keep Going
New York City FC know full well their fate is in their hands when it comes to securing a playoff spot.
All the team can do is win their remaining games, and the game against D.C. United was not only the chance to score a win against a rival for the playoffs, but also a chance for the players to show what they can do when the pressure is on.
While no one anticipated a 6-0 victory, the fact the Boys in Blue didn’t stop after racing into a 3-0 lead speaks to the team’s drive to score goals and be ruthless. At no point did they seek to protect their lead, instead preferring to be proactive and take the game to their opponents.
“It’s in our DNA,” Ronny Deila said afterwards. “We want to attack all the time. We want to give the fans entertainment, and something to remember. This is the first time in the history of the club we’ve scored six goals, and that’s something we have to take with us. At our best we can do big things, and our lowest levels is too low. We showed ourselves from the best side. It’s so hard to control us and get points from us [when we play like this].”
Clean Sheet
While the players that score the goals often find their name up in lights, allow us to celebrate the man between the posts.
Sean Johnson didn’t have a lot to do on Saturday night, but when called upon he was fantastic. His first half save in the 22nd minute showed tremendous agility and recovery speed, and helped maintain NYCFC’s control over proceedings. He would produce an equally impressive stop in the second half to deny Chris Odoi-Atsem from a header and preserve his clean sheet.
The Club’s captain displayed a level of focus and concentration that is vital on nights like this, particularly for a team that likes to control proceedings in the way NYCFC do. He may not have scored any of the goals on Saturday, but Johnson’s ability to stop them is just as important.
History makers
Saturday night under the lights in the Bronx is always a special occasion for NYCFC, and what better time to record the biggest win in club history.
So much of the performance against D.C. United typified what this team is striving to be, with fast, dynamic soccer at the heart of everything the team did right. Ronny Deila believes this kind of performance has been coming for some time, and was delighted to see his team deliver on their potential.
“We got better and better the longer the game went on,” Deila said afterwards. “We put a lot of passes together, we switched the play well, we created chances. It could be more and that’s a great thing to take with you into Wednesday.”
Saturday’s game was a memorable one, and it’s fitting that the best victory in Club history came with a scintillating performance to match.
Small Tweaks
In soccer, the importance of small details should never be overlooked.
A tactical tweak can be the degree of difference between success and failure, and for NYCFC it was central to the team scoring six goals on Saturday night. Ronny Deila chose to utilize a back four against D.C. United – a bold decision given United’s preference for a back three – and there was a tinge of surprise to see James Sands lining up at an unfamiliar spot of right back.
As the game progressed, however, it became clear what the thought process was. In possession, NYCFC would switch to a back three system, with Sands moving inside. This would afford left-back Malte Amundsen more freedom to join the attack. Quite whether Deila expected his decision to return results after 36 seconds is unclear, but a central theme of the evening was Amundsen’s rampaging runs down the left.
“I think I did what I’m good at,” Amundsen said afterwards.
The Dane finished the night with two assists and four key passes (source: mlssoccer.com), and it was a small tactical tweak that allowed him to not only maximize his skills, but also expose a weakness of the opponent.
