New York City Football Club saw its winless streak reach 11 games after it fought to a 1-1 draw with the Houston Dynamo on Saturday night at Yankee Stadium.
NYC FC sits in last place in the MLS Eastern Conference with a record of 1 win, 7 losses, and 5 draws, for 8 points. Their last win came on March 15th in the home opener against New England. At this point in the season, there is little room for error, and NYC FC Head Coach Jason Kreis said it was disappointing, that they must take three points out of every home game.
New York City FC Midfielder Mix Diskerud said on if the draw feels like a loss, “No, I wouldn’t say that. A loss would feel a lot worse than a tie right now, especially when you feel you could have could have gone home with three points in the bag. It’s home and we want to get three points every time.”
NYC FC Defender Chris Wingert said of not being satisfied with ties at this point, “You need wins, that’s for sure, especially at home so, I mean, we’re not satisfied. Good effort, but can’t be satisfied with good efforts when you gotta win games. Definitely disappointing again, just gotta keep trying to get better, keep moving forward. We’ll continue to work on our mistakes and try to correct those, but we created a lot of chances, but maybe a little unlucky not to bury of those at the end.”
NYC FC defender Jeb Brovsky said of ties being like losses at this time in the season, “I don’t think they’re losses, but I certainly think they feel like, you know when we don’t win at home especially or when we put in a good performance and don’t get three points out of it, it’s certainly disappointing. You go through the week, you bust your butt throughout the week, and you want three points, you don’t want just one point. So, yeah, it’s a little disappointing, but it’s one point and we need to keep building.”
NYC FC came out firing, as David Villa had an excellent scoring chance from the left side in the very first minute of the game.
Houston got chances thereafter, and they broke through in the 15th minute on a corner kick. It went right into the box and Houston’s David Horst used NYC defender Jason Hernandez’s back as leverage to go up and get it and head the ball to Will Bruin to make it 1-0 Dynamo.
NYC FC defender Chris Wingert said of the goal, “They whipped one in, Dave Horst rose up, headed it down, and I was with Will Bruin, and he swung really fast and it went like right up in the upper corner. I don’t know, I guess I could have been in front of him a little better. I’ll have to watch it again, it happened really fast and happened to go right in the top corner. I don’t remember how they got the corner kick and if we could have prevented that, but yeah, I felt like it was a shame to be down 1-0 early, but good job to battle back and get the goal before halftime and the momentum was with us, created a lot of chances in the second half and just weren’t able to bury one.”
New York City FC Defender Jeb Brovsky said of conceding the first goal, “We knew on set pieces and crosses that this team (Dynamo) get excited, they put their big bodies in the box and we need to deal with that better. Even on the knock down we need to be a little bit closer. I don’t know if it’s a lack of focus for two seconds, or it’s just a bad bounce, but right now we’re not happy giving away that first goal.”
The rest of the first half was tepid aside from a good chance by Villa in the 20th minute and Houston’s Raul Rodriguez sending one over the crossbar in the 29th minute.
In the 46th minute, NYC FC has some sustained pressure. There was a ball sent in to the box. NYC forward Adam Nemec went up for it and it hit the arm of the Houston defender for a handball. The Dynamo were livid, as it did look very questonable and that their defender was not deliberately trying to hit the ball. Villa took the penalty kick to tie the game at 1 heading into halftime.
In the second half, NYC’s Nemec had a great chance in the 75th minute when he came down the left side and it went off the crossbar. Houston had a chance in the 83rd when Giles Barnes got off a point-blank shot from the left side, but NYC goalie Josh Saunders made an amazing save.
The best chances for NYC FC to win it came from Jeb Brovksy late, In the 89th minute, Brovksy came in on the right side and got off a header, which was brilliantly saved by Houston goalie Tyler Deric. Brovsky got another chance in the 92nd when he came down the right side again, and got a shot by Deric, but it rolled just wide past the left post.
Brovsky said of the frustration of the late chances not going in, “It’s just the way our season’s going right now, I think we can’t get a bounce, can’t get a break, people are making big plays against us and, I don’t know what it is, but first one, I think he makes a fantastic save, second one I’m just trying to get that across goal, and hopefully somebody maybe could tap that in and maybe I could hit it on goal. It’s tough because you work hard for 90 minutes, and you want a result, but you know, one point is one point and we need to keep rolling.”
NYC FC midfielder Mix Diskerud said of Brovsky’s chances at the end of the match, “I was celebrating, so hopefully nobody filmed that. I think it was a save of the year from the goalie (Deric) that was incredible. As I said, he (Brovsky) was dangerous and he was the right back, so that shows something. We want to win these games, it could take a while or it could be next game but we’re going to keep grinding. We really wanted to come away from this game with three points.”
New York City FC Forward David Villa said of the game through a translator, “We were very close. I think we had good chances, and I think we dominated throughout the game. We just to have to keep going, and work harder, and look forward to the next game vs. Philadelphia.”
Villa said of how he can get more experience and confidence into his teammates, “It has to come out of themselves. If you want to become a great soccer player, it has to come out of you. I’ve had many rough moments in my career. When I was 21, I was fighting against relegation. Individually, everyone has to fight for themselves and come out of these tough situations.”
Brovsky said of Head Coach Jason Kreis saying that the team needs to show more confidence, “I think he means everybody, I don’t think one guys is singled out in that. I think we are better team when we’re taking our chances and on the front foot and putting the other team on their back foot. We’re not a good team when we sit back and we let teams come at us. You see throughout the season that we are a better team when we press, flying guys forward and taking chances.”
Brovsky said of the second half chances, “I think in most MLS matches and matches around the world you sometimes see guys’ legs get tired, or mentally get tired, and it could take a two or three second lapse and a chance can open up. I think that’s when we can catch teams, we have a good level of fitness on this team and we got dangerous guys coming off the bench that can make things happen. Khiry Shelton and Poku, and these guys who came on, Patrick Mullins, are dangerous guys and they have a lot of energy. So, when teams wear down these guys can come on and make things happen for us.”
On having to play from behind, Mix said, “It’s definitely something that we need to stop doing. We can’t let the other team score the first goal every single time and to let that happen in the first 30 minutes, that’s not good enough.”
Wingert played the entire game after it looked doubtful he would play due to a hamstring injury and faced a scare in the 67th minute when a ball hit him in the groin. He said of how he he felt afterwards, “Hamstring held up, which was definitely a positive, I’m happy to make through healthy because I didn’t know if that would be the case. I took a shot in the nuts.”
Wingert was asked by New York Sports Day if he followed the FIFA scandal while preparing for this game, and he said, “A little bit, I mean you’re hearing it, it’s on every form of media that you can imagine with it being such a big deal. That’s out of my hands, so I’m certainly more concerned with what’s going on with our team and trying to get better every week so we can win some games.”