New York City FC falls to Charlotte FC 1-0 in season opener

New York City FC dropped the season opener on the road as Charlotte FC led most of the game and earned the 1-0 victory at Bank of America Stadium tonight. NYCFC trailed for most of the match after conceding an eighth minute goal off a corner kick from Adilson Malanda at the near right post. 

NYCFC stopped the Charlotte lead from doubling in the 66th minute when Matt Freese saved a Kerwin Vargas penalty kick but ultimately couldn’t find an equalizer in the final minutes.

Here are three observations from NYCFC’s first match of the regular season.

Slow start

NYCFC conceded the first goal of the match off a set piece when a rebounded Matt Freese save was headed home by Malanda in the eighth minute. That goal was reflective of how the game began, as Charlotte had a 3-1 shots advantage and 59.5 percent of the possession through the opening 15 minutes.

“You have to absorb the pressure and you have to be a team that absorbs the moments and we didn't do that well enough in the first part. The set play came - it was far too easy,” NYCFC head coach Nick Cushing said after the match. “And something that we will speak about as a team [is that] we have to stop this. We have to stop giving away cheap set play and cheap set play goals. I think you see how strong we were after that.” 

First-half momentum shift
NYCFC gained more control of the run of play as the half went on, with 65 percent of the possession in the final half hour before halftime. NYCFC was able to turn those into scoring opportunities, outshooting Charlotte 5-2 during that stretch. NYCFC got the first shot on target during that span, as Julian Fernandes forced Kristijan Kahlina into a save in the 35th minute with a shot from the right side.

One challenge was turning that momentum into high-percentage opportunities, as NYCFC had just 0.2 expected goals in the first 45 minutes of play.

Finishing

While NYCFC did flip the momentum and started to create chances after weathering the initial storm, the challenge in the rest of the match was translating that momentum into a goal. Despite holding 57.3 percent of the possession and taking 11 shots over the course of the 90 minutes, New York City finished the match with just three shots on target and 0.6 expected goals. Two of those shots came in the final 10 minutes of the match, as Talles Magno had two shots from the left side of the box in the 86th and 89th minute that both were stopped by Kahlina.

“We have to create cleaner chances from the moments we get,” Cushing said. “I think we had two or three really good moments with Kevin [O'Toole] and Mitja [Illenic] in the first half where we have to cross the ball better, we have to find our offensive players. We have many moments in the second half where we have to create goal chances, and I think when we have a lot of the ball teams sit low against us and we have to find the answer to unlock them.”

Next Match

New York City FC will remain on the road for the second week of the season with a road trip to Missouri to take on St Louis City SC for the first-ever meeting between the two clubs. St Louis drew Real Salt Lake 1-1 in the regular season opener tonight, and the second-year expansion club is coming off a first place finish in the Western Conference last season.