New York City Football Club stretched their unbeaten streak in MLS to eight games on Saturday with a 1-0 win.
Here's Five Points from a big win in Minnesota.
Table Toppers
The MLS season is a long and challenging campaign, but Saturday saw NYCFC move top of the Eastern Conference.
Ronny Deila and his players won’t be taking anything for granted as they move into the next phase of the campaign, but being top of the table was a small reward for their hard work this season. It will only matter most if the Boys in Blue claim the Supporters' Shield come the end of the season, but setting an early mark and pace can only be seen as a good thing.
Shapeshifter
NYCFC have shown some impressive tactical versatility under Ronny Deila.
Whether it’s the team’s more favored 4-2-3-1 formation, or the back three system Deila has used, NYCFC have been able to adapt to certain situations or switch things up to ask different questions of their opponent.
We saw that again on Saturday as the team spent some of the latter part of the game in a 4-4-2 formation when defending out of possession. This gave them a more rigid structure and allowed them to shut off space down the middle.
That helped the team see out the game and record another big win.
Captain Fantastic
It’s often said in soccer that defending is a team effort.
On Saturday, the 10 outfield players did a tremendous job of limiting Minnesota’s looks at goal and stifling chief playmaker Emmanuel Reynoso. When the Loons did manage to get shots off they found a man inspired in Sean Johnson.
He built the foundations of his brilliant performance in the fourth minute when he denied Franco Frangapange from point-blank range. Continuing that form through the game the climax of his performance came as the 90th minute approached – first denying Reynoso from distance before tipping Robin Lod’s follow-up out for a corner.
Another impressive performance from Johnson, the confidence he gives his teammates has been central to this run.
Total Package
While Saturday’s win against Minnesota came via a narrow margin, it represented the culmination of the team’s attacking arsenal.
If you rewatch the few minutes leading up to the goal you will see a 17 pass move that ultimately earned NYCFC a decisive pair of corners. Alex Callens goal came during the second set play. We’ve discussed the coaching staff’s hard work when it comes to devising set play routines, and when combined with their commitment to possession soccer it proved the difference maker on Sunday.
Patterns in open play, patterns from set plays, it’s all about the preparation.
Shutout Streak
We’ll let the tweet do the talking on this one.
