For all the hype, New York City FC is an expansion team. They sit in last place in the league, both in points and points-per-game. One of their star designated players, Spanish international David Villa, seems to be injured as often as he plays. The other decided not to show up.
Granted, the Sky Blues of New York have started to get things turned around, and ended an eleven game winless run with back-to-back wins over Philly and Montreal. So they’ve proven that they can beat the East’s weak links.
That was before Wednesday, however, when City TFC’d in the most spectacularly Reds-like fashion. Fielding a mostly first choice line-up, NYCFC conspired to lose their Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup tie with the New York Cosmos.
It wasn’t just that they lost to an NASL side while conspiring to miss at least three chances to effectively – and once literally – end the game. By taking the game to penalties, New York managed to play many of their starters for 120 minutes, on artificial turf, less than three full days before kick-off in Toronto. If you had asked TFC players what the best result for them was in the Open Cup, it would have been exactly that.
If the Open Cup loss had a positive for New York, it was the solidification of Kwadwo Poku as one of the team’s bona fide stars. The Ghanaian was picked up from the Atlanta Silverbacks of the NASL and had been emerging as one of the club’s more entertaining and consistent performers though mostly in a series of substitute appearances. Granted a start against the second division Cosmos, Poku scored both of City’s goals, and both were taken in confident fashion.
Also on the field against the Cosmos was American international Mix Diskerud. The Norwegian-born hair maestro has been the closest thing to a supporting star for David Villa and scored the club’s first ever goal in Orlando. Diskerud hasn’t always been playing the part, however, and was embarrassingly substituted out by head coach Jason Kreis in the local derby defeat by a ten-man New York Red Bulls.
The rest of the City line-up reads like a who’s who of MLS journeymen. At their best it’s players, like former RSLers Ned Grabavoy and Chris Wingert, who used to be solid cogs in good sides, before age and the strictures of the MLS salary budget caught up with them. But a greater portion of the team feels more like a regular MLS team’s twelfth best player. Mehdi Ballouchy, Jeb Brovsky, Andrew Jacobson, Josh Saunders, and Jason Hernandez will all be names familiar to the hardcore MLS watchers in TFC’s audience, but are unlikely to be memorable to the casual viewer.
Coming off a bye weekend themselves, the Reds really have no excuse for not “making history”.
Former captain Steven Caldwell seems unlikely to return from injury, but the makeshift backline Greg Vanney has settled on has been working out for the last month. Using veteran left back Justin Morrow as an emergency right back has been the switch that changed Toronto’s season and possibly saved Vanney’s job. Which of the young centre-backs is chosen to pair with Damien Perquis has been another question, with Eriq Zavaleta more recently preferred to Nick Hagglund.
Regardless of who plays at the back, Toronto’s offense is not in question. While captain Michael Bradley may have returned from international duty with the United States, Toronto FC has unquestionably become Sebastian Giovinco’s team. The pint-sized Italian has been outstanding, and until MLS defences figure out a way to contain him, the Reds will always be a threat to score.
Four wins. It should be harder not to do than do.