Toronto FC faced off against NYCFC this weekend in a high scoring game that few expected.
Both teams were missing stars, but there were plenty of fireworks to light up Yankee Stadium anyway. Frank Lampard missed out on his long-awaited NYCFC debut with an injury while Mix Diskerud was away on Gold Cup duty with the USA, where he joined up with Toronto FC’s Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore.
However, it didn’t come down to the quantity of big names on the pitch, but rather their quality. David Villa and Sebastian Giovinco each put on a show, with the former bagging his third brace in four games and the latter posting a hat trick and adding an assist in an MVP level performance. Each was able to take advantage of what was a terrible defensive showcase from both teams, leading to a 4-4 draw in a high-octane battle of attacking firepower.
Each of these clubs has faced their trials and tribulations defensively through much of the 2015 season. Toronto’s defense-especially late in matches-has gotten them beat time and time again over the past few years, while NYCFC have had these problems from the very beginning. For Toronto, it’s more of a tricky situation to figure out. This is a club that’s playing in their ninth season, and they still have yet to figure out some of the problems that have plagued them from the start. Whether its injuries, a carousel of ineffectual coaching changes, or just getting it wrong in terms of personnel choices, the result is that Toronto are still underachieving and it’s nearly 100% due to their lack of defensive ability.
For New York City FC, their poor defensive acumen stems from the fact that they are an expansion team with a total of three center backs on their roster. Injuries to players like Jason Hernandez and Josh Williams, and the inexperience of young players like Shay Facey have resulted in almost no lineup consistency along New York City’s back four.
The revolving door of center back pairings for New York has resulted in communication issues, and that lack of cohesion was on full display on Sunday as Sebastian Giovinco sliced Kwame Watson-Siriboe and Shay Facey into pieces, which he then scattered whimsically throughout Yankee Stadium. It was brutal, it was merciless, and it was a new “Exhibit A” for why New York City FC haven’t been able to put games away during the majority of their inaugural season.
Kreis addressed this issue in the post-match press conference by acknowledging Giovinco’s quality, but also affirming that “… For that player, that we’ve known that much about, to get that much time and space is incomprehensible.”
It certainly was incomprehensible. The way that Shay Facey and Kwame Watson-Siriboe approached the task of trying to defend Giovinco was as if they knew they had no answer for him and didn’t even try to find one throughout the match. Both center backs were way too slow in reading Toronto’s buildup play, and while Giovinco was anticipating both his teammates’ decisions and the inability for NYCFC’s defenders to cope with his movement, Facey and Watson-Siriboe were content with being reactive. As a defender, you can’t be reactive when you’re matched up against a world class attacker such as Sebastian Giovinco. He’ll burn you for a hat trick, and that’s exactly what happened.
However, Kreis wasn’t inclined to let the back four shoulder the blame for what was an infuriatingly porous and incomplete performance from his point of view:
We’re really starting out games well… Creating attacking chances, creating goal scoring chances, taking goals, but for whatever reason, there seems to be a moment in every game where we just stop. I think the moment probably came when we gave away that penalty kick that they actually scored to make it 2-1. I think a lot of guys kind of hung their heads at that point and said “here we go again,” and that’s not a good enough reaction, and we’ve got to continue to strive to improve because we need to be able to put ninety minutes together, that always has to be our goal. You’re never going to be dominant and the leader of the match for ninety minutes, but it certainly needs to be our goal, and we need to make those stretches where we’re playing well and feeling confident a lot longer. Today’s was thirty, I think.
First of all, that’s an incredibly thorough answer, and it highlights just how upset and unsatisfied Jason Kreis has been with his team’s overall effort. Secondly, it crystallizes the “oh yeah, this is an expansion team” issue that is going to make it hard for this team to get to the next level regardless of what Designated Players they sign. Perhaps it’s players being disillusioned by the reality of being a part of a brand new club with incredibly high expectations. Perhaps it comes down to individual players lacking confidence in their ability. Whatever it is, the resulting mentality issue that continues to hurt this club needs to be solved immediately, or they run the risk of being perennial underachievers in the future.
However, regardless of Jason Kreis’ efforts to spread the blame for this performance and the team’s defensive issues across the entirety of his roster, there is still a glaring personnel issue in the center of defense and it needs to be taken care of during this transfer window. NYCFC has had two center backs on trial during the last week (Tefu Mashamaite from Kaizer Chiefs and Jefferson Mena from Independiente Medellin) and it’s highly probable that they sign, even if it’s just to shore up some depth.
The bottom line here is that there are some recurring issues that are preventing NYCFC from reaching the levels they’re capable of, even in this inaugural season. The good thing about these issues is that they seem to be clearly identifiable, which is rare for something that has occurred across a relatively small sample size. When the issues are known, it’s easier to go about fixing them. The real challenge coming up for Jason Kreis, his army of experienced designated players, and his defensive personnel, is navigating a turbulent transfer window and showing diligence in solving those issues.
Photo by Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images
