New York City Football Club Head Coach Ronny Deila has praised his team’s patience and hard work following their 3-0 victory against San Jose Earthquakes.
The Boys in Blue came up against a strong outfit in the Quakes on Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. The two sides could be separated until Keaton Parks’ 74th minute strike broke the deadlock, with further goals from Gabriel Pereira and Chris Gloster enhancing the score line. Clearly pleased with his side’s showing, Deila said afterward he felt it was his side’s best performance this season.
“First of all, San Jose were really well organized,” Deila said. “They were really hard to play against. This is the best opponent we’ve had in this stadium this season so far in my opinion. We had to be at our best, we had to be patient, we had to stay disciplined. It’s easy when you don't take your chances in the first half to be stressed and lose organization. I think it was our best performance this year. At the break we changed the formation a little bit because the press was giving us some problems.”
The Norwegian tactician also hailed the influence of his substitutes. Deila introduced Chris Gloster alongside Maxi Moralez and Gabriel Pereira in the second half, with two of his three changes landing on the scoresheet.
“I think Maxi [Moralez] and Gabriel [Periera] changed the game also,” he said. “Maxi finds spaces, and we had a really offensive formation. We had Keaton and Santi [Rodríguez] as two sixes, and Maxi as a ten. Gabriel is very good at going past people and his left foot is fantastic and he’s shown that twice in two games. He’s adapting to the style and the training in a very good way. He’s already having a very big influence on the game.
“Chris came on and he gets some minutes and gets a great goal. Offensively he is top. Defensively he has to develop. Today he did a really good job defensively and offensively. There's a lot to improve still but he takes steps all the time. He’ll be an option heading into the rest of the season and the future.”
