Nine years before Manchester City Football Club was founded. A hundred years before the homeland of the owners of that esteemed club was formally established. And 143 years before the founding of New York City FC, a Prussian General by the name of Bernhard Graf von Moltke \u2013 the architect of the wars that ultimately unified Germany into the footballing powerhouse (and also nation) that it is today \u2013 made perhaps the most famous observation about war ever scribbled down:<\/p>\n
\u201cNo battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Or, as Tommy McNamara said to me in the tunnel after NYCFC beat the Chicago Fire at Yankee Stadium, when I asked him if the Fire played them the way they expected. \u201cWell we certainly didn\u2019t expect to go a man down in the first ten minutes, so no.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Or perhaps it did. For Chicago played the young Venezuelan like a fine instrument. From the moment Yangel Herrera did not<\/em> get the Penalty Kick he felt he deserved, the Chicago Fire players hacked and shoved and annoyed him. They goaded him into the retaliatory actions that resulted in his early ejection. A smart move on the Fire\u2019s part to be sure; focus on the young player who has so quickly become so crucial to NYCFC\u2019s success. Attempt to take advantage of his inexperience. See if you can get him to make a rookie mistake. In spite of the fact that these tactics haven\u2019t worked when other teams have tried them.<\/p>\n I asked other players about that afterwards. If they were going to offer any advice to Herrera about how to handle that in future. About adjusting one\u2019s game if the ref was going to call it that tightly. But to a man they disagreed. You have to play your game, they said. You have to do what you do, otherwise you\u2019re no good to anyone. And then you have to expect there to be consistency from the officials. Was there consistency today? They all shrugged.<\/p>\n But there was. If not from the officials, then from NYCFC. Every member of the club consistently worked harder than I\u2019ve ever seen them work before. They swarmed in pairs on the ball when Chicago had it. And they covered acres and acres of pitch. And they barked instructions, encouragement and invective at each other to keep them all focused, to drive them all further. Each player had a moment when he saved the match. When he cut off a pass, when he made a key run, when he made a save, when he doubled back on coverage.<\/p>\n And they needed it. Because not only were they playing without two of their regular starting back line, and without Rodney Wallace, and down a man and facing off against the second best team in the league, but at one point they were down to only nine.<\/p>\n When Ben Sweat, who has been a stalwart of the backline with a goal and four assists<\/a>, was led off the pitch at the half hour mark. And the game was tied at nothing and the sun was beating down from an angry sky. And when those lost points against Toronto \u2013 as well as the fatigue of a match only a few days earlier \u2013 began to rear it\u2019s ugly head.<\/p>\n But that was also the moment I had been looking for.<\/p>\n \u201cYou would like to see\u201d<\/em> I said to Joe Amato<\/a> and Anthony Scarcello<\/a> on the Dudes in Blue podcast last week<\/a> \u201dif there was a moment where things started to go sideways, [the team] all kind of pull each other together and say \u2018hey, we\u2019re pulling out of this tailspin.\u2019 If they did that, win or lose, points or no points, if they demonstrated that kind of character, that would be a great thing to see going into the second half of the season. Because I think those were the kinds of things you didn\u2019t see when they lost 7-0 to the Red Bulls and when they lost 5-0 to Toronto.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Which is what happened when NYCFC beat the Chicago Fire.<\/p>\n And which is why David Villa talked about the character the team showed during the match. Why he talked about how every single player contributed. How everyone had to \u2013 not just today, but for the rest of the season. Like Jonathan Lewis contributing terrific ball-handling and then a beautiful cross to David Villa for the first goal. Like Sean Johnson with key saves. Or like Frederic Brilliant sacrificing the body (and potentially a second in-match head injury) to score what turned out to be the game winner. A sacrifice from a player who has struggled to get time on the pitch this season and who frankly needed a great match. And who had one when the team needed it most, as they attempted to climb a seemingly insurmountable challenge in the Bronx. When NYCFC beat the Chicago Fire.<\/p>\n But the fact is, the ultimate value of overcoming a challenge like that is very rarely the event itself. The real <\/em>value is in the ability in future, when faced with something even more<\/em> daunting, to look back upon this moment and remind ones\u2019 self of the triumph. To take courage and inspiration from it. To tell oneself, \u201cwell, I got through that; I can get through this.\u201d To recommit to success against the current challenge with renewed passion.<\/p>\n Now, does that old German general have some clever saying about how to do that when you\u2019ll be without six players<\/a> and you\u2019re facing the top team in the league on their home turf?<\/p>\n I\u2019ll have to get back to you on that. <\/p>\n