When watching a regular season match, there is primarily one question to ask – will they win? (unless, of course, you were watching The Goats last year, in which case it was generally “how much will they lose by?)
NYCFC Pre-season: The Wild, the Innocent and the Carolina Challenge
But when watching a pre-season match, the questions at least treble and are correspondingly more complicated. “How much should the coach play the starters?”; “What would a non-roster player have to do tonight to make the team?”; “Is this formation/line up the true one or simply another experiment?”; or even “For godsakes is there nothing else to watch on television?”
When watching NYCFC’s first pre-season match against an MLS team the questions multiply exponentially, as they did on Saturday February 21st when they took the pitch against this season’s other expansion team, Orlando City, in game 2 of the Carolina Cup Challenge.
Because this was their first experience against the quality of team they’ll be spending the next several months playing against. Because we have don’t know if NYCFC is Real Salt Lake with money or something entirely different. Because Mix was sick and couldn’t play. Because we don’t know if Orlando actually is MLS quality – they’re an unknown quantity too. Because these two teams play again for keeps in two weeks.
And because there’s also something of an aphorism among viewers of pre-season matches in ANY sport, and that is this: good teams lose pre-season games, bad teams win them. Why? Because good teams play all their 3rd and 4th string players to see if there’s anything there worth keeping; bad teams use pre-season to give their bad starters more practice. So they win. Until they get into the regular season and start playing everybody else’s first string. And then they lose.
So with all this in mind, what can we learn about NYCFC from a 1-1 draw? A couple of things.
First and foremost is, okay, now I get it about Khiry Shelton. The kid has game. He is big. He has pace. He has touch. His goal was lovely. His steal a few minutes later that set up what should have been another goal, showed the kind of hustle and aggressiveness one has to admire. And the idea of him setting up with David Villa and Mix and the Holy Ghost (Who? Frank Lampard – an integral part of the team though nobody can actually see him) is actually mouth watering.
Re-watch his goal and enjoy it. But then, watch something else on the tape. See David Villa after he feeds him the ball. See how he stops running, as if to say “son, if you don’t bury this, you best go on home”.
Because that’s the second thing one saw, or at least, one should become concerned about. As anyone who watched Thierry Henry’s impatience and frustration with his MLS teammates increase with each missed pass, defensive lapse and foolish foul can attest, it is worrisome that David Villa was not seeing the passion, energy, aggressiveness or commitment that he feels is fundamental. And NYCFC cannot afford for him to check out.
Now, you’re probably saying “This sounds a little paranoid.” You’re probably saying “Someone is reading too much into one pre-season game.” Then you’ll love this: Did you notice that at the halftime break, OCSC players walked off talking to each other, exchanging ideas, pointing to runs, etc. While NYCFC players? Like the old Boston Red Sox: 25 players, 25 cabs. They didn’t look like a team on the pitch and they didn’t look like a team coming off of it.
Passing was inconsistent – a mortal sin for a Kreis team that relies on possession. Runs were missed, or not started. And the defense?
The defense was, uneven. If OCSC could even remotely finish – like even once out of every three chances – NYCFC would have gotten pounded. Time and again the Lions had shots that bounced off the post, had crosses that were just out of reach of an attacker, and had balls bouncing around in the boxes that must have had Kreis tearing out his perfectly coiffed hair. And while it’s difficult to believe anyone in blue needs to hear this, really guys, you absolutely, positively cannot leave Kaka with that much space.
But Saunders made some fine stops (because he had to) and on the breakaway in the first half (that Kaka should have buried and put Orlando up two-nil) he was strong AND two NYCFC defenders had his back. So it wasn’t all bad. It just reminded one of what NYCFC fans were screaming during the dispersal draft and the expansion draft and the free agent draft (both rounds) and the super draft: “ANOTHER MIDFIELDER? FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, JASON, HOW ABOUT SOMEONE ALONG THE BACK LINE?”
But hey. It’s pre-season. And on February 25th they’ll play Houston. Which undoubtedly will raise more questions.
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Main Photo Credit: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
