New York City FC suffered a defeat on the road this weekend.
St. Louis City SC recorded a 2-0 scoreline on the night.
Here are Five Points from the game...
Quick Start
St. Louis City advanced out of the blocks quickly as they sought an early advantage. They came close to securing that lead in the 7th minute, but they were denied by the woodwork. NYCFC faced a test of their mental strength early on and came away unscathed.
From there, they slowly established a foothold in the game and their momentum grew, pushing St. Louis back toward their own goal. It was unfortunate that St. Louis’ opening goal came at the height of that momentum, but that only serves to highlight how cruel the game of soccer can be at times.
Expected Goals
Despite being a goal down at half time NYCFC actually lead the expected goals column 0.58 to 0.51.
That told the story of the first 45 minutes. While St.Louis had clipped the post twice and found a goal, NYCFC had produced several opportunities of their own that deserved more. By the end of the contest, St. Louis had mustered 0.81 to City’s 0.68. A far narrower gap than the 2-0 scoreline would suggest.
Elsewhere, City dominated the ball and slowly adjusted to St. Louis’ high press. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be at CityPark on Saturday, but the hope will be the underlying numbers quickly continue to trend upwards and are shown in the boxscore.
Hard Yards
By the stroke of the 70th minute, three of the five players that had covered the most distance were for NYCFC.
Against a team like St. Louis – that prides itself on energy and relentless hard work – it speaks to how willing NYCFC were to go toe to toe on a physical level. That experience will serve them well in future matches, with NYCFC showing the kind of hustle required if they are to start picking up points.
New face
Nestled in the difficult moment that was the result on Saturday was the debut of Agustín Ojeda.
The Argentinian winger showed flashes of his quick feet against St. Louis and he will undoubtedly offer dynamism and quality in the final third as he continues to adjust to his new surroundings.
Bienvenido Agustín, el nuevo Celeste!
Adversity
Keaton Parks left Saturday’s contest a frustrated man. The midfielder was fouled on several occasions, and more importantly than that he was eager to win.
In reflecting upon the game, he sought to embrace the bonding opportunity that adversity can provide. This is a new group, a young group, and they will take time to gel as a cohort.
Through struggle, you learn a lot about not only yourself but also those around you, and that can be the ideal platform to bond and evolve to the next stage of development.
