New York City FC Snaps Three-Game Skid with Convincing 2-0 Victory in Chicago
Courtesy: NYCFC Twitter
By Eddie Kalegi
For the first time in nearly a month, New York City FC can celebrate a victory. A strong effort on all sides of the ball propelled NYCFC to a 2-0 clean sheet victory over the Chicago Fire in the windy city, their first win since July 23rd to snap an arduous three match losing streak.
It was a shorthanded effort for City tonight, with Keaton Parks and Alexander Callens still out, while Maxi Moralez and Alfredo Morales also didn’t make the trip to Illinois due to recent injuries.
It was an uneventful start to the Sunday evening affair, with neither club getting a shot off in the match’s first seven minutes. New York City controlled possession early on, but with the absence of several key players, the synergy was lacking, and the attacks were futile. But in the 16th minute, things would take a sudden turn. Malte Amundsen fired a pass to Gabriel Pereira, who converted on a straight-on right-footed strike from 18 yards away to give New York City FC a 1-0 lead, the third consecutive road contest where visiting City had the first tally on the scoreboard.
A scary moment would come minutes later, as a subsequent New York City FC corner kick resulted in a nasty collision between Amundsen and Chicago’s Kacper Przybylko, who banged heads going for a high arcing loose ball. Przybylko was bloodied, battered, and down for several minutes, but was able to continue.
Thiago would have a chance, a couple subsequent corners would follow, but City couldn’t capitalize. Both sides would trade scoring opportunities in the final few minutes of the first half, but they would all come up empty, as New York City FC headed to the locker room with a 1-0 lead.
In their last two road matches, New York City blew a 1-0 lead and lost. In an effort to not have lightning strike thrice, NYCFC got on the board just a minute into the frame, as a Chicago turnover set up Santi Rodriguez for an easy score to double City’s lead.
Holding their first multi-goal lead in more than four weeks, New York City was back to playing their brand of soccer, and continued to largely thwart any Chicago attacks. In the 62nd minute, a heated game would even see City’s interim manager Nick Cushing picking up a yellow card for throwing the ball while complaining about the placement of a throw-in. After that, Chicago would get their best scoring chance to this point, but a tightly angled shot by Jhon Duran missed left.
Speaking of yellow cards, Santi Rodriguez would pick up a pair in the match’s first 75 minutes, meaning that because of penalty accumulation, he will be suspended for City’s next match.
Despite some second half sloppiness and minor injury scares from Sean Johnson and Nico Acevedo, who both were able to stay in the game after collisions, New York City FC did more than enough to finally muster a strong performance in the month of August. Jhon Duran missed a 92nd minute header off the crossbar, and time would ultimately run out with City on top. It was a 2-0 dominating win to get the boys in blue back on track, their first since Taty Castellanos left for La Liga. New York City held the Fire without a single shot on goal, while the team prevailed on the road for the first time since July 17th in the Hudson River Derby.
The victory moved New York City FC back within a point of CF Montreal for second place in the eastern conference table. City will play their fifth road contest in their last six matches on Sunday August 28th, as they travel to the sunshine state to face Orlando City SC.