New York City FC Vs Toronto FC: Self destruct

On a dramatic night at CitiField, New York City FC were once again struck by their MLS playoff curse, losing 2-1 to Toronto FC. This was self destruct at its most ferocious.

After dominating the Eastern Conference throughout most of the regular season, finishing six points clear of second-placed Atlanta United and losing just six of their 34 games, many pegged New York City FC as their Eastern postseason favourites.

But on Wednesday night, against a visiting Toronto FC, the Blues seemed to forget everything that has made them so good in 2019. They were well and truly architects of their own downfall.

During the first half, the weight of expectation came down on Dome Torrent’s men like a tonne of bricks and a very nervous NYCFC failed to gain any sort of control in midfield. Alexander Ring and Keaton Parks were restricted to shielding roles in front of their defence as Toronto set up camp inside the attacking half, and every time the home side tried to play out, Greg Vanney’s men did an excellent job of forcing them wide, before pressing the full-backs into long balls down the channels.

Had New York City FC managed to clear it over the heads of the Toronto defenders, this would have been fine. But they didn’t, and instead, the likes of Alexandru Mitriță and Ismael Tajouri-Shradi were forced into physical battles they are just not equipped for. Mitriță, in particular, struggled and lost possession seven times, more than any other NYCFC player on the night.

In all fairness, though, New York should have expected this. They were the home team and big favourites to win the match, so of course, Toronto would try their best to nullify their biggest threats  — a pat on the back to the 2017 MLS Cup champions for a perfectly executed gameplan.

Despite Toronto’s dominance, the two sides went into the half-time break level. Toronto were the superior side up until that point, but New York were not exactly on the ropes. But then came the second half, and with it, that dreaded disaster: the big, red self-destruct button.

Just two minutes after the break, a seemingly routine long ball toward the New York box resulted in a comical game of head tennis between Alexander Callens, Alexander Ring and eventually Maxime Chanot. As the ball came toward the latter, the obvious choice was to chest the ball down to the right and clear it, or even just send it on its way first-time with Alejandro Pozuelo bearing down on him.

Instead, Chanot tried to flick the ball back to Sean Johnson. He made a complete mess of it. Pozuelo coolly controlled the ball and slotted home to make it 1-0.

https://twitter.com/MLS/status/1187163653071466497?s=19

For a time, this actually seemed to ignite the home side. All of a sudden, the previously nullified Maxi Moralez started picking up the ball in menacing positions, while Mitriță began driving inside and getting a sight at goal. The Romanian’s aim was off by his standards, but he was proving far more threatening than he had throughout the entire match up until this point.

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New York City FC were rewarded for this brief spell of dominance when Moralez elegantly spun free of Toronto pressure on the left, delivering a cross to the far post for the onrushing Tajouri-Shradi to fire home.

1-1. Curse? What curse? Oh, that curse.

Even as New York City battled their way back into the game and looked to have salvaged extra-time, disaster is never far away from this club where the playoffs are concerned. Descending towards second-half stoppage time, substitute Richie Laryea, who has taken to the postseason like a duck to water for TFC, made a driving run into the NYC box. It was threatening, but full-back Ronald Matarrita was in control and could have easily forced him to the byline and away from danger.

Instead, the Costa Rican took flight and lunged into a ridiculous, inexplicably stupid challenge in his own box, got nowhere near the ball and instead hacked Laryea to the floor. A penalty was awarded and Matarrita was left with Moralez screaming god only knows what in his face.

Up stepped Pozuelo with a beautifully executed Panenka penalty, showing nerves of steel under the utmost pressure to make it 2-1 to TFC. This is what we came for. NYC spent the final minutes frantically launching the ball into the box, with Johnson joining in the attack himself in a desperate effort to restore parity. But by then, the damage was already done.

Through a mixture of excellent tactical planning and execution from TFC, and two monumental, ‘bang your head against a wall’ mistakes, New York City FC were left ruing a fourth consecutive Eastern Conference semi-final exit in a postseason where they were arguably more fancied than ever before. And that is the most painful of painful ways to bow out.