New York City FC has been a club of two halves. The Club got off to another sluggish start in their 2-1 defeat to Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon at PPL Park, but rebounded in the second half. David Villa equalized in the 55th minute, but the Union took all three points on Vincent Nogueira's winner in the 92nd minute.
"For whatever reason, I don’t know the answer to it, and I don’t think anyone has it quite yet, but we have to figure it out pretty quickly," New York City FC head coach Jason Kreis said. "We can’t seem to start a match the right way. We’ve had one good start to a match, and that was the home match we won. So we’ve got to sort through that.
"But the reaction and response in the second half was very good. You walk away one half feeling very disappointed and disgruntled, but the other half says there’s still good stuff there and I see an end-product that we want to get to, but we have got to figure it out pretty quick."
New York City FC (1-2-2; 5 points) has allowed a Major League Soccer-leading 35 shots in the first half of matches this season. Luckily, the opportunities have only led to two first-half goals.
"We look like two teams in every match," defender Jason Hernandez said. "The first half we kind of look like we’re sleep-walking a little bit and the second half we seemed to play more of our style and look more like ourselves."
TEAM |
PLAYED |
SHOTS TAKEN |
SHOTS FACED |
SHOT DIFFERENTIAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
New York City FC |
5 |
17 |
35 |
-18 |
FC Dallas |
6 |
21 |
34 |
-13 |
Seattle Sounders |
5 |
16 |
26 |
-10 |
Toronto FC |
4 |
23 |
31 |
-8 |
D.C. United |
5 |
26 |
33 |
-7 |
Starting XI Mix Up
New York City FC will be without starting midfielder Mix Diskerud for tonight's match against Philadelphia.
Mix was called up to the United States National Team for their friendly against rival Mexico. He started and played 80 minutes in the 2-0 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 64,369 on Wednesday night at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Mix's absence is certainly welcomed by Union head coach Jim Curtin.
"I hope he's not there," Curtin said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday. "He’s a good player, he’s a really good player. I’ve seen him obviously play a lot. Saturday was the first time I’ve seen him up close. I had a great respect for him already but to see him in tight spaces ... his speed is something I was not aware of. Up close he’s a very good player, a dangerous one and a good one to have in your midfield."
Mix has started all five matches for New York City FC this season. He has been the maestro in midfield, completing 308 of his 356 passes (86.5 percent). Mix also scored the first-ever goal in club history in the 1-1 draw at Orlando City SC on March 8.
Aristeguieta Absent Again?
Philadelphia leading goalscorer Fernando Aristeguieta will be another game-time decision for tonight's match.
The 22-year-old striker who is on loan from FC Nantes missed Saturday's match against New York City FC in Chester, Pa., with a left quad injury. Aristeguieta leads the Union in goals (3), shots (19) and shots on goal (9).
"He had an injection a few days back and responded well to that," Curtin said. "He was on the field Tuesday, did a little running and some ball work, so it's positive. We’ll have to make an intelligent decision because you don’t want to rush a guy back and then have him be out three weeks by aggravating it. We'll monitor it and make a decision that's best for the team and not just this 90 minutes."
