One of the reasons we all love this game of soccer is that anything can happen. It is a metaphor for life. What should happen often does not, and what could happen often does. That was how it played out on Thursday evening in the Bronx. What should have happened didn’t. DC United should have beaten New York City FC. What could happen did. And with it, a glimpse of something that might become magical. 

On Thursday night, New York City FC beat DC United. Tremors are now, or should be, rippling through the league. Maybe not for this year, as the new team has a very large hill to climb in order to make the MLS Cup Playoffs. But alarms should be ringing loud across the league putting coaches on notice for next season. Tonight NYCFC started showing glimmers of the team it can become. Like an ultrasound of an unborn child, tonight’s match was a peek into the future. 

Last Sunday the team lost handily to the New York Red Bulls. In part because it was a derby—which is a beast unto itself—and in part because their tactics worked. The Red Bulls swamped Andrea Pirlo, they swarmed David Villa and the offense, and they outran and outlasted the defense. DCU didn’t do any of those things. And they lost. They lost hard. But that’s not the cause of the tremors. 

The rumble that the other teams should be feeling is that the team is starting to coalesce. Teammates are starting to intuitively know where their counterparts will be. They are starting to sense when one of their own are in real trouble so that they assist, or when it is just an annoyance so that they press on. They are starting to break up plays knowing that in the chaos one of their own will pick up the ball if they fail. And they are pushing forward and pressuring the opposition if they lose the ball during the attack. 

In short, NYCFC are beginning to play a cohesive high pressure game. Yes, they had some weak moments in defense, yes, they had some lapses on offense, but all in all they played a game that would have taken three points in any league in the world. Well, maybe not against Bayern Munich, but this writer would lay odds on them against the others. Can they do this every week? No. Because they are not Bayern, but the fact that it came tonight, when they needed to win, against the top team in the league, does forewarn of things to come. Be forewarned.

The Man In Seat 9