In the first Major League Soccer match of the weekend, New York City FC draw closer to a playoff position after putting four past at home against the Chicago Fire in a 4-1 win. The story of the game was the attacking threat that NYCFC carry as well as how concerning their back line is as they continued to give the away side many opportunities to score more than their solitary goal on the night.
NYCFC came into this match without Frank Lampard, who had picked up a slight injury and they knew that a win tonight, and other results going their way over the weekend, would guarantee them playoff soccer. Chicago came into this match wanting to try and salvage something from a disappointing season but they had no answer to David Villa, Steven Mendoza and Khiry Shelton.
A wide open first half sees four goals
The first half saw two teams that were clearly going for goals and did not seem all that interested in defending. NYCFC set the tone for the half with two very quick goals in the eighth and ninth minutes. After an attack was put out for a corner in the eighth minute, Andrea Pirlo played a short corner to Ronald Matarrita. The left back swept in a good ball to the far post that was met by Shelton and nodded back across goal by the forward. Jefferson Mena got to the ball first and stabbed it in for NYCFC's first goal of the match.
From the restart, NYCFC doubled their lead immediately. Shelton was again involved as he held up the ball outside the box before passing it to David Villa. Villa picked up his 18th of the season with side-footed finish from the top of the box. The home side continued to create chances for themselves but at the 25th minute mark, they had only managed to convert two of those opportunities.
The Fire were not completely out of the game and in the 27th minute, Argentine forward Luis Solignac was set free one-on-one with Josh Saunders but he hesitated and sent his shot high over the crossbar. It was a warning sign for NYCFC and they seemingly did not heed it. In the 35th minute, Arturo Alvarez, who had an outstanding first half, lifted the ball into the box with his left foot and found Solignac free inside the area. The Argentine made no mistake and nodded home the Fire's first goal of the match. Three minutes later, Alvarez sent in another great delivery that found Michael De Leeuw floating into the box but the midfielder could not get any power on his header and it went straight to Saunders.
Both teams continued to create chances at both ends for themselves and Chicago almost drew level in the 43rd minute through Alvarez. The midfielder picked up the ball outside of the box and hit a low, placed shot towards the bottom corner. Saunders initially saved the shot but it hit the post and bounced off the goalkeeper before going out for a corner. Chicago would rue their misfortune as from that resulting corner, Villa broke free quickly with Mendoza and Shelton keeping pace with him. The Spaniard passed the ball to Mendoza who then cut inside onto his left foot before curling the ball into the top corner. It was a great goal that not only put NYCFC 3-1 up but also allowed them to go into half time after scoring at a crucial point in the match.
Defensive lapses continue in the second half
The second half was set at the same tempo as the first even though NYCFC dropped off a little to try and dominate possession. However, because their defense was still very open, Chicago continued to find spaces to create opportunities for themselves while NYCFC found chances to break forward quickly against an unimpressive Chicago back line.
In the 55th minute, a throw in found midfielder Matt Polster in the NYCFC box and his effort using the outside of his foot was parried out by Saunders. Chicago's corners almost ended up being their undoing as once the ball was cleared, Mendoza started another counter for NYCFC. The midfielder's effort was parried by Johnson to Villa and the goalkeeper managed to recover quickly enough to block Villa's shot and even though the ball took a few deflections, it still would not go in for NYCFC.
Chicago were lucky to escape without conceding a fourth goal at that point. NYCFC knew that they were being found out defensively and decided to keep pushing forward for more goals. Substitute Jack Harrison found David Villa in the 66th minute and Villa flicked the ball on for right back Jason Hernandez whose effort was again saved well by Johnson. Harrison was involved in the next NYCFC attack two minutes later when his delivery found Villa unmarked in the box but the Spaniard could only find the crossbar with his header.
One minute later, the ball traveled up the field and found Solignac who held the ball up well. He played a one-two with David Accam which set Accam through into the box but the Ghanian screwed his shot well wide. Time and time again Accam continued to find ways of beating his defender and exploiting the gaps that NYCFC were affording him, and with Alvarez being on form tonight, Accam had his opportunities to not only score a goal but set up his teammates as well.
Unfortunately for Chicago, they were unable to convert their chances and their porous defense allowed Villa to pick up his second of the night in the 82nd minute. Shelton got forward quickly again and in a two-on-three situation, still managed to find Villa unmarked with a nice through ball. Villa jinked past a defender and then finished brilliantly with his left foot to give him his 19th goal of the season and put him one behind Bradley Wright-Phillips in the race to finish as the MLS top goal scorer this season.
Conclusions for both teams
For all of NYCFC's fire power, their back line is going to be a big worry for head coach Patrick Vieira when they reach the playoffs. Against better opposition, the amount of gaps that the Fire were able to exploit and the almost lackadaisical nature of the marking by most of NYCFC's defenders will be punished by the better strikers in the league. The last chance of the game was the perfect example of that as Polster got forward and sent the ball across the goal mouth and somehow, substitute Khaly Thiam conspired to miss from right in front of the goal. Opportunities like that will most certainly be in Vieira's mind when his team enters the playoffs and it will be something that he will need to correct quickly.
Chicago are in a deep hole and unless their team manages to attract some top talent, they will continue to be at the bottom of the Eastern conference as those around them have players like Villa who can win games on his own. Accam, Alvarez and Solignac are fine players in their own right but they do not have the precision in front of goal to every truly push their team up the standings and the Fire's defense continues to underwhelm. If changes are not made in the offseason, players like Accam will be picked up by other teams and if he cannot be convinced to stay, the Fire will lose another great talent to either another MLS team or a European team in the near future.