NYCFC SMASHES NEW ENGLAND! TOP OF THE TABLE BABY!
What a game baby! Quite possibly the WORST start you could ask for but it’s all about how you finish. Jesús Medina is a bona fide STUD and now the city boyz are sitting pretty at the top of the goddamn table with a handful of games left to play!
This was very very bad. Just straight up poor marking and a hard angle taken by Stuver. Again, it’s not how you start but how you finish. They got a very lucky break soon after that when Antonio Delamea jostled with Taty and earned himself an incredibly dubious red card thanks to VAR. To this point, the Ref (Silviu Petrescu) was downright terrible. New England was on the defensive for the rest of the game, constantly trying to make up ground on the wings. Gary Mackay-Stevens got the start today and struggled out on the sides, and was later subbed out for Ismael Tajouri-Shradi. Fellow sub Jesus Medina was a jolt of electricity for the offense, immediately getting a shot off and scoring 10 minutes after coming in. They had much better opportunities in the second half, culminating in a penalty drawn by Mitrita in stoppage time (thanks again VAR). Medina buried it and sealed the game.
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Takeaways: Another bad start left a nasty mark on this one, and they were TREMENDOUSLY aided by errant referee judgement. They need to stabilize their defense going into this final stretch of games if they want to stay at the top. They’re on a 5 game win streak and need to keep the momentum going vs what SHOULD be a win vs 6th place Toronto. Here is some interview stuff from postgame: