It was a successful three-road-match month for New York City’s Football Club in May.
2-0 victories at Montreal Impact on May 4 and LA Galaxy on May 11, and a come-from-behind 1-1 draw at Chicago have NYCFC on a club-record unbeaten run and peaking as we enter the all-important summer months of Major League Soccer’s regular season.
Here are the Boys in Blue in the running for the Etihad Airways Player of the Month for May 2019.
Maxi Moralez
Our #10 continues to grow into the season. He scored the opener and assisted on Ismael Tajouri-Shradi’s goal in the dominant 2-0 victory in Montreal, then went on to bury his penalty take on the stroke of half-time in Los Angeles the following week to secure another big three points on the road. Moralez finished the month by assisting on Alexandru Mitriță’s equalizer in Chicago. El Frasquito - spinning webs and scoring goals in equal measure.
Héber Araújo dos Santos
The man with the million-watt smile continued his hot start to life in New York. He scored the opener away to LA Galaxy for his third tally of the year and continuously opened channels for his teammates with his adept hold-up play and runs off the ball in equal measure. Spoiler alert: while it doesn’t count in this vote, the #9 tallied again vs. Columbus Crew to open up June’s run of fixtures. Here’s to more goals and more Etihad Airways Player of the Month nominations.
Alexander Callens
Three starts, two clean sheets, and a first major tournament call-up for Peru has Alexander Callens feeling good coming out of May 2019. With the Dome’s system of three central defenders gaining momentum, Callens has seen his role grow in importance as NYC builds attack out of the back. The only way is up for Iron Man.
