New York City FC: Finding heroes in every nook and cranny
By Josh Sippie
New York City FC were once a team built around and propped up by David Villa. That has changed, as they are finding heroes in every nook at cranny.
It’s been a theme throughout the growth of New York City FC – finding a way around the perceived dependency on David Villa. There’s nothing wrong with placing huge expectations on a world class striker for an expansion side. But the key is weening the club off of that, because all things come to and end, even when considering the ageless Villa.
The Cityzens used to live and die at the feet of the Spaniard. If they succeeded, it was thanks to him. If they failed, chances are he did too.
Things have changed though. And nothing emphasized that more than the win over the San Jose Earthquakes.
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Villa was lost in the pregame warm-ups and San Jose, playing at home, scored in the second minute. It was looking pretty bad for a Villa-less, Alex Ring-less New York City FC. But as is the new theme for the sky blues, they are finding new ways to win and new guys to propel them to overcome inconvenient obstacles.
You know what to expect out of El Capitan and out of guys like Maxi Moralez. They are proven commodities. It’s what is built around them that matters. And it’s what is built around them that is stepping up.
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Take Ismael Tajouri for instance. Suddenly leading the team in goals and chipping in the assist as well.
Then there’s Anton Tinnerholm, getting life at his new club started well with two goals, one a thumper that – yes – rivaled Zlatan’s show-stopper, if not because of the sheer difficulty of what he did alone.
But the hero against San Jose was Sean Johnson. Now, Johnson is certainly a proven commodity. Everyone knows what he is capable of. But against San Jose, he was asked to do more than his usual workload, and he did it to near perfection.
Johnson was instrumental to the win and earned himself a man of the match performance, without a doubt.
It’s just another way New York City FC are winning. A truly great team is a team that can turn to each member and ask for something extraordinary. This season alone, we have seen extraordinary from about five or six different people, if not more.
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That number will grow. They’re winning without two of their most important players in Villa and Ring and, while I hope I don’t have to test this theory, I believe this team could cope with even more.