New York City Football Club Head Coach Ronny Deila believes their Concacaf Champions League semifinal against Seattle Sounders is far from over.
The Boys in Blue suffered a 3-1 defeat during the first leg on Wednesday night at Lumen Field. The two sides will reunite next Wednesday to decide which team will advance to the final of the competition, with a 2-0 win enough to see NYCFC advance. Speaking after the game Deila confirmed
“It’s a totally different game when you come away from home,” Deila said. “I think in 80% of the game we had good control but in some key moments in the game we were not close enough, especially on the left side and we concede some crosses against us. They are deadly when they get opportunities like that, but we got our way go and that was important. We can go full into the game on Wednesday. We’re coming home, we need to win 2-0. We’ve done that many times before so I'm positive we can do better than we did today. At the same time we know how good we are when we are at home so nothing is over.”
Wednesday’s game proved to be an enthralling encounter with both sides creating good chances. Reflecting on his side’s performance, Deila was keen to see his side get the ball out wide more often and utilize crossing opportunities.
“There were opportunities for us to play but we needed to switch to play,” Deila said. “We did it at some moments - on the goal we were good but they are a good team, they are well organized. They stop spaces and they are deadly when you lose the ball in bad situations. They are very good at counterattacks and we were totally clear on that. I didn't feel that we lost the ball so, but we should have played wider and got more crosses inside the box. Every time we did it we were more dangerous. With them it was more that they also came around down the sides and get crosses inside the box - especially on the on our left side.”
You can purchase tickets to the second leg on Wednesday, April 13, here.
