There are a lot of things one learns when covering a team as singlemindedly as I’ve been focused on NYCFC this season. You learn that the guys at the stadium start to recognize you. You learn where the press dining room – or table-covered-with-pizza-boxes as the case may be – is at various stadia. You develop some understanding of the individual players as people, not just as numbers on the pitch. You like to think that they think of you as something more than just one more moron screaming questions at them. You learn to hate “Native New Yorker”
And you learn this:
The level of hate and vitriol that NYCFC have engendered among fans, sportswriters, players, casual observers, hell, even beasts of the field, is, were it not a little absurd, virtually all-pervasive – as I was reminded after Saturday’s match at BMO Field against Toronto FC.
If NYCFC play a physical game, a game in which they mark players like Bradley and especially Giovinco very closely to prevent them making the quick turn or pass that has allowed them to dominate other teams, then they’re called bullies who scratched up their star player and slowed the game to a crawl. (In a related story, yes, Jacobson’s shot to Damein Perquis was cheap, but it was in retaliation for Perquis taking a whack at Jacobson’s, um, privates, during the same play. So, you know, all’s fair in love and “get your hands off my junk”).
If, on the other hand, Kreis and company play a finesse game with the kind of passing that make Arsenal and Villa’s Spanish National team champions, they’re told that expecting that kind of skill is a fool’s errand in MLS where the players are second rate and many of the pitches worse than that (I’m looking at you, RFK and Gillette).
If they start winning – as they are now – then the old taunt that follows the Yankees is raised, that they’re “the best team money can buy” and that they lack the legitimacy, authenticity and integrity of the “Original Ten” or even of “promoted” sides like Montreal, Vancouver and Orlando.
If they are losing – as they were a month ago – they’re vilified as fools who, even with the truckloads of money at their disposal, can’t seem to put together winning side.
If they don’t spend money, people hate them because they’re clearly too stupid to realize the mess they’re in and have no plans for fixing it.
If they do spend money, they’re just throwing bad dollars after good, cynically chasing big names just to keep butts in the seats, not really intent on fielding a winning team (Which, it should be pointed out, must be working; they’re averaging over 27,000 every time they play in the Bronx).
And speaking of Yankee Stadium, if they lose there, then they’re idiots for fielding a team before they had a soccer-specific stadium in place to play in.
On the other hand, if they win there (as they have in back-to-back games this month), they’re chided for having an unfair advantage because the pitch is sandy and barely regulation size.
Hell, if they even show up at Yankee Stadium, they suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous infielders who complain about the damage they’ll do to the pitch. I mean, diamond. (By the way, the Yankees are currently 20-13 at home, so they don’t seem to be suffering too badly. They are, however, under .500 on the road, so maybe NYCFC are having some sort of voodoo residual effect).
Now I’ll admit, the free-spending makes me uncomfortable for any number of reasons, not the least of which is my simple Midwestern roots.
But as my ma likes to say, “Money does not make you happy, but it quiets the nerves”, and at the end of the day, a team is as much its front office as its field players. Or, as a famous footie commentator once told me, “Stupid is as stupid does.”
And what NYCFC, that transatlantic love child of two insanely rich sports organizations, is going to do is what its parents have done: buy great players and then find smart managers who can figure out how to get the accompanying oversized egos to work together to win championships. To expect them to do anything else would be like expecting the Cleveland Browns to make an intelligent decision at quarterback. It’s just not going to happen.
So get to used to it, NYCFC fans, front office, players. Learn to embrace the hate that will greet you as you step on to every pitch. Funny thing about that hate – it’s harder to hear the more hardware you bring home.
But don’t take my word for it. Go ask your parents.
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