After Red Bull New York’s near decimation of New York City Football Club on May 21st, my brain, my inbox and my twitter feed were overloaded with content. Thus, seven different ways to look at the beatdown by RBNY that NYCFC experienced.
Seven Ways on Sunday: NYCFC’s beatdown by RBNY
Number One:
Because of a personal commitment, I was uncharacteristically not in section 29 to witness first hand the beatdown by RBNY. Thus the case can be made that it didn’t actually happen. That this is all just part of the mainstream media’s continued war against City Football Group. A war that has uncharacteristically cut across party lines, athletic loyalties and even financial logic, since the argument really doesn’t make any sense. But since when has that had anything to do with soccer commentary?
Number Two:
Okay, I saw it on TV Or at least the first half. So it did happen. And it was a disgrace. I haven’t seen the team play with that little passion since last year’s unpleasantness in Los Angeles.
Number Three:
On the other hand, maybe that wasn’t a lack of passion we were seeing, maybe it was a bunch of guys who were just plain worn out from 4 games in under two weeks. From a trip to our nation’s capitol and the Rose City and the T.dot – over 6000 miles and four timezones. When we looked at the schedule at the beginning of the season, we knew this was gonna be a bear, and maybe the beatdown by RBNY was just evidence of that.
Number Four:
Canada is still NYCFC’s bitch. I know, I’m the only one banging this drum, but, still, they are. The team haven’t lost to a Canadian side all season. They’ve only lost to one ONCE in their entire history. NYCFC’s brothers across the Hudson have lost more times to Canadian teams THIS YEAR ALONE. So there’s that.
Number Five:
If I’d told you in February that we would net seven points in a stretch of four games played in under two weeks against 3 teams from our division (all of whom were above us in the standings last year) including the defending MLS cup champions and involving over 6000 miles of travel – would you take it? Would you ask for a sip of what I was drinking? Especially when you remembered that last year, we didn’t get our eighth point on the road UNTIL THE END OF JUNE? Sure the beatdown by RBNY last week hurt. But if that’s the payment, I’ll take it. I won’t be happy about it, but I’ll take it. And come October, so will you.
Number Six:
Is this the tipping point moment that CFG needs to finally get serious about a stadium? Is the fact that NYCFC played in three radically different venues and took points in each one, and then came home to the friendly confines of the sandbox in the Bronx and got a legendary beatdown by RBNY, the thing that gets them to pry open their pocket books and do whatever the hell it takes to build a stadium for their team? Did it become obvious to them at long last that 101 x 61 doesn’t give David Villa or Andrea Pirlo the space to create, allows teams to bunch up along the back line and clog up the middle? Look, I’m not blaming everything that happened on Yankee Stadium – as the players themselves will remind you, RBNY was playing on the same pitch NYCFC were. But when your team has a better away record than it does at home, it has to make you wonder.
Number Seven:
As painful as this was – and make no mistake, the beatdown by RBNY left a lingering mark – this is the thing that builds a community. That builds a team. Our deepest relationships are not made during times of splendor and plenty. They are forged in the cauldron of disaster, when others chide, taunt and ridicule us with hands to ears as they approach the supporters section. They are born from that sick feeling in your stomach that is your body’s palpable expression of shame, drying your tongue in your mouth, casting your eyes towards the ground. Because it is in these moments that we look to our left and our right and see the rest of us who are still wearing blue, the rest of us who will be at the next game, the rest of us who will have our back on social media and in at the bar and in the streets. The ones who’s back we will have as well. Victories are great. Victories win championships. But the Brooklyn Dodgers were not built when they won the World Series, they were built when they lost to Bobby Thompson. Ali is not a legend because he beat Ernie Shavers; he’s a legend because he got up off the canvas against Joe Frazier. This was our trial. There will be more. We will endure. Because that’s how it works.
