After the match against Orlando City Soccer Club, Patrick Vieira used a word that followers of the team had not heard around New York City FC before. “What we need to be” he complained, “is a little bit more ruthless in the 18 yards in the offensive and the defensive side”. Indeed, the adjective was so unusual that some members of the press wondered whether the multilingual manager had gotten his nomenclature crossed. But no, as Vieira went on to explain, he felt that the team were creating chances but that there was some sort of timidity or unwillingness to shoot. An approach that was fairly incomprehensible to a footballer like Vieira who played with an almost mythic aggressiveness.
Clearly his admonitions worked, because NYCFC promptly went out and lost their next game to Real Salt Lake.
After a lengthy Copa Centenario-driven layoff, the team’s next match was in the Open Cup against the NASL champion Cosmos. The team who booted NYCFC out of the Cup last year. The team who booted them out again this year as well, albeit in a different stadium. Did Vieira chastise the team’s lack of “ruthlessness” on this occasion? Hardly. “I don’t think we had the humility to win that game” Vieira said. “Or to make the right decision at the right time.”
Wait, what? “Humility”?
Let’s set aside that “humility” is a curious term for any manager in as violent a sport as football to use. And let’s even set aside that it’s a downright bizarre word to spring from the lips of a man whom The Times of London has cited as one of the 50 hardest footballers in history. Instead, let’s focus on it being frankly an incomprehensible word in the context of his previous complaints that the team were not being “ruthless”.
He wants them to be ruthless? And then he wants humility? Ruthless Humility? What the hell is that?
Because aren’t the terms sort of opposites? People who are ruthless – Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, Josef Stalin – as a rule tend not to be humble. If you have something they want – some land, three points, a stapler – their impulse is to kill you over it. THAT’s what being ruthless is all about.
And people who show humility – Mariano Rivera, Tim Duncan, St. Francis of Assisi – put the needs of others first. Gale Sayers didn’t title his biography “Screw you, assholes.” He called it “I am Third” (“The lord is first, my friends are second, I am third”).
That’s why these people tend not to be the ones that come to mind when you think of “ruthless”. Il Poverello was never known to give someone the “cutthroat”. Just as “Uncle Joe” Stalin was not known for his self-deprecating wit.
Ruthless Humility? What the hell is Vieira talking about?
He’s talking about what the fans saw on June 18th in the Bronx against the Philadelphia Union.
He’s talking about when Jack Harrison ran almost the length of the pitch with Union defenders on his back. Ran with an intensity and passion usually reserved in that space for Derek Jeter. Who then had the presence of mind to back-heel the ball to David Villa who had the better shot.
He’s talking about when David Villa had the ruthlessness to take a shot from midfield – a shot that very nearly caught MLS standout Andre Blake off his line. And then saw Frank Lampard hustling to put the bouncing rebound in. And then saw Villa laughing when it all came to naught.
He’s talking about when Villa dummied a direct kick. And when Andrea Pirlo put that golazzo into the corner for his first goal since donning the blue and white.
Or when Kwadwo Poku beat two men to make a cross in the 89th minute that Villa one-timed, forcing Blake to make his best save of the match.
Or when the defense played with a physicality that was at times, yes, reckless. But that left no doubt about their determination and commitment and focus.
Or when they saw all the NYCFC players talking to each other. Directing each other, warning each other, cheering each other on – like fans had rarely seen all season.
Ruthless Humility. Ruthless when facing the ball and the opposition. Never giving up. Never stopping. Never letting your opponent relax when you’re on the pitch. And humility – a respect for the game, for the plan, for the players around you on the pitch and in the locker room.
Ruthless Humility. Or as we call it in New York, “teamwork”.
