New York City FC couldn’t quite find a road win over Eastern Conference foes Columbus Crew SC in a lightning-delayed thriller.
The excellent, clutch performance from rising star Kwadwo Poku wasn’t enough to fully overturn the fortunes of a squad once again beset by defensive woes. His two goals were enough to drag NYCFC out of a 1-0 hole on the road, but his production was eventually matched by the likes of league-leading scorer Kei Kamara and new Columbus addition Cedrick Mabwati.
However, in a vacuum, a 2-2 comeback draw on the road against an incredibly dangerous Crew SC team is by no means a poor result. It’s actually a surprisingly good result considering how NYCFC’s defending corps (which have become something of a running joke, unfortunately) were expected to struggle in their effort to plug all of the holes that Kei Kamara and Ethan Finlay could have exploited.
Unfortunately for New York City FC, this match was played in anything but a vacuum. The expansion side’s season is slipping away from them and the tension built up by a 75-minute lightning delay created both the perfect metaphor for the magnitude of these final ten games, as well as the perfect stage for NYCFC to come out of the gates and grab their season by the horns.
Instead, the team were unable to find much momentum and it was Columbus who had the better of the chances in the final minutes.
The draw sets up an interesting scenario in the Eastern Conference because NYCFC’s one point gained puts them level on points with Orlando City SC and Montreal Impact for the final playoff spotin the East. While they are ahead of Orlando City based on goal differential (both sides have the same 7-11-7 record), Montreal has the benefit of four games in hand.
Imagine that. NYCFC endure an eleven-match stretch where they don’t win a single game, and then find themselves in contention for a playoff spot near the end of the season. Major League Soccer is a trip.
But even in a league as… forgiving… as MLS, it’s really coming down to the wire for New York City FC and they have themselves quite the hole out of which to dig. They face the Western Conference leaders, the fully-loaded powerhouse, borderline SuperClub Los Angeles Galaxy on Sunday, and they do so with a defense that can be most kindly described as pedestrian.
Sunday’s match is of the utmost importance for NYCFC if they want to stay on track to make the postseason. The match is their first of nine remaining games in the regular season, and at this point, they’re all must-wins. From a more philosophical point of view, Wednesday’s match against Crew SC was a must-win as well. It wasn’t quite a six-pointer, but it was an opportunity to take meaningful points from a team above them in their own conference. Now, they just need points and it doesn’t matter where they come from.
The absolute minimum result that New York City can get from this match is a draw, with goals scored. NYCFC face their last chance to have a realistic shot of staying in playoff contention, meaning there is no room to drop all three points. The difficulty of this situation is compounded by the fact that the match-up between LA’s attacking corps and NYCFC’s defense might be the mismatch of the season.
It could also be the turning point that lights a fire underneath NYCFC and sends them shooting into the playoff picture. If New York City manage to have a cohesive, defensively sound performance against Los Angeles, we could be looking at yet another story of a team getting hot just at the right time to propel them into post-season success.
As electrifying as he’s been, Kwadwo Poku can’t be forced to single-handedly drag New York City to a result in this match. Everybody in contention for minutes needs to be invested in a result. Spotty performances like that of Jefferson Mena, who had some excellent 1v1 moments against Columbus but was once again susceptible to ball-watching, will be unacceptable. Another tidy-yet-quiet performance from Mix Diskerud will most likely not be good enough, either.
For New York City FC, a win over the LA Galaxy is possible if they live up to the way they’re capable of performing. If they bring anything less than their A-game, Jason Kreis’ men are in for a long, hot day in Carson, California.
