NEW YORK – While their head coach continues to search for answers, New York City FC's veteran players are preaching positivity despite failing to win in their 11th consecutive match Saturday night against the Houston Dynamo.
NYCFC remain fixed at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings with eight points through 14 games after the 1-1 draw at Yankee Stadium, but there is not as much despair as one would expect from a last-place team. Instead of celebrating a moral victory, however, head coach Jason Kreis was still frustrated with his squad's inability to gain maximum points at home.
“The players need to be a little bit more brave,” Kreis said. “They need to be a little bit more bold and have self-belief about what they are and who they are. We may not be the best team in the league, for sure, but we are certainly capable of playing better than we did for long stretches of that first half.”
NYCFC conceded a goal within the first half hour of a match for the ninth time this season when Dynamo forward Will Bruin scored in the 16th minute. But they equalized just before the half when David Villa converted a penalty.
Villa’s goal gave NYCFC the momentum they needed to make a second-half surge, but they failed to convert on a couple of golden chances after the break. Villa was not discouraged, however, pointing to his own career experiences when reflecting on the current state of the club.
“It has to come out of themselves,” Villa said. “If you want to be a great soccer player, it has to come out of you. I’ve had some really tough moments in my career. When I was 21, I was fighting to avoid relegation at Zaragoza. Individually, every player has to fight hard to overcome those situations.”
Kreis also continues to show belief in the roster, with every player seeing time on the field. He said he plans on giving regular substitutes Thomas McNamara and Kwandwo Poku more action in the near future, while also continuing to rely on youngsters like Khiry Shelton and Patrick Mullins, who have already integrated themselves into the first team. Mullins believes repetition is essential to the team’s hopes of ending its winless drought.
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“We’re all here for a reason,” said Mullins, who had a good chance at a game-winner in the waning minutes after coming on as a late substitute. “We all have a job to do. We haven’t been performing to the best that we know we can. It comes down to doing it constantly during the week and when it comes to the weekend, it’s natural.”
Fullback Jeb Brovsky is playing for a new expansion team for the third time in his MLS career and was a member of the Vancouver Whitecaps side that holds the MLS record for longest winless streak at 14 matches. He said the key is maintaining faith in Kreis’ ability to guide them out of this winless streak.
“We need to keep believing in what the coaches are telling us because once there’s one ounce of dissent, or one ounce of negativity, then the whole thing can crumble,” Brovsky said. “I think every guy is 100-percent positive, 100-percent bought into the system. Results are going to come, we know that.”
