It’s been a long day, without you my friend, and I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again…. This was running through my head when I arrived at Yankee Stadium today. Since life decided to do what life does, I’ve been even farther behind the scenes than usual this past year and today is the first match I’ve been to this season. I caught a few on TV and my husband has kept me updated, so I admit that despite Wednesday’s debacle I had high expectations for today’s match. New coach, more aggressive style of play and thus far a solid defense. With Montreal’s season so far and NYC’s fresh start I was looking forward to a new and exciting experience.
They started off strong right out of the gate. According to Coach Pascal Jansen, they were determined to set things straight after the crushing loss to The Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC on Wed. All agreed that for the first 25 min they were doing this. Maxi Moralez seemed to play with an energy I hadn’t seen in a while. The defense seemed very well coordinated, and offensively they were attacking right out of the gate. Then it all changed. The style of play was back to what I had become used to in the last two seasons – lots of time setting up plays that didn’t connect and not enough shots on goal.
In the second half, the defense seemed to fall apart. Montreal scored early with a goal that appeared as if it snuck in when no one was looking. The remainder of the match felt like a “kick-around” with little energy or passion. So what went wrong and how can they fix it? Coach Jansen feels that there is too much reliance on Alonso Martinez to score goals and they need to develop more of an attacking threat. He points to the leadership potential of Matt Freese, Thiago Martins, Maxi Moralez and Justin Haak to contribute to the building of a more cohesive and successful team this season. They’ve also just added Aiden O’Neill to the mix, so we may see some changes once he settles in. There’s hope for New York City. Whether or not they live up to their potential remains to be seen.
