New York City FC dominates but still finds a way to lose

New York City FC is struggling

Saturday’s 2-1 loss at Columbus Crew SC was dispiriting for New York City FC, another underwhelming result despite being the better side on the field for much of the match. It has become a sobering reality for an NYCFC team that has not played as well as expected over the past month.

New York City FC has lost three of their last five games as they’ve struggled with depth issues due to recent international call-ups. But a lack of quality, despite controlling much of the match, led NYCFC to once again drop points.

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“As a coach you have to try and put yourself in situations that you have a good chance to win the game. That means you have to create more than the opponent, keep them away from getting chances and create something yourself. I think we did that very good today. I think the team was playing very good through the game,” NYCFC head coach Ronny Deila said after the match.

“We don’t get what we deserved in the end. Having said that, it’s happened a lot of times now where we are dominant inside the boxes. We are taking the possession in the game as well, in their half all the time. We need to believe in what we’re doing. This is the way forward to be a top team and win trophies. You need to control games on the ball and defend high up on the pitch when you have opportunities to do that.

“We weren’t effective enough and they were really effective. I feel a little bit sad for the players because we deserved more. We’re gonna play so many games now. It’s keep on believing. Keep on improving the thing we can improve. We know what that is. The small things inside the boxes. Keep on being disciplined and organized, like we were today.”

The loss drops New York City FC to 5-5-2 (17 points) and in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. They now play CF Montreal midweek at Red Bull Arena.

New York City FC dominates but…

Statistically, New York City FC was the far better team in their losing effort. They held a decided edge in possession (60.1 percent) as well as shots (21:6) and shots on goal (7:3) as well as corner kicks (7:1).

But New York City FC, outside of Jesus Medina’s goal in the 47th minute, just simply did a poor job of creating chances and then finishing them.

New York City FC lost their last league match by an identical 2-1 score to CF Montreal at Exploria Stadium in Orlando. Saturday was an unfortunate and unfair result for NYCFC as they dominated long portions of the game in Columbus.

“It’s tough mentally when you the feeling after every game is that we’re better than them. You look at the stats, you look at the expected goals, look at everything,” right back Anton Tinnerholm told reporters after the match.

“It’s not like we can change anything like we play, but this last thing is missing and it’s really, really frustrating. The best part is now is that it’s a new game on Wednesday and we want some revenge on Montreal. It’s a lot of games coming up, and we have to bounce back directly.”

Follow Kristian Dyer of ‘MLS Multiplex‘ on Twitter @KristianRDyer