New York City FC welcomed the debut of veteran Basque right back Andoni Iraola on Sunday afternoon.
Iraola, who spent the last 12 seasons playing for Athletic Bilbao in La Liga prior to signing with the Club on June 16, started for the Club and played a full 90 minutes in the 4-4 draw with Toronto FC at Yankee Stadium.
Iraola was tied for a team high with five tackles and had the second most touches (72) and third most passes (56) in his debut for New York City FC.
By the Numbers
- First-career start for New York City FC
- Played the entire 90 minutes of the match
- Tied for a team high with five tackles
- Second on the team with 72 touches
- Third on the team with 56 passes
Iraola said:
"It was exciting. The atmosphere was great. I felt very good from the beginning. I wanted to help my teammates more and I'm not happy because we couldn't win this one."
In the coach's words:
"I was really pleased with him. We took a gamble because he’s only been training now for a week. The idea was to start him, play him 45 minutes, talk to him at halftime, see if he could continue on. He wanted to continue on 15, 20 more minutes. We got to 15, 20, 30 minutes. I asked him if he wanted to continue to go and he said, 'Yes.' The character is fantastic. He’s really, really hungry to help this team.”
