Time doesn’t stop in the world of soccer – not even after a lopsided 7-0 result.
Patrick Vieira and New York City FC are shaking off the aftereffects of Saturday’s shocking 7-0 loss to Hudson River rivals New York Red Bulls as they return to training and prepare for Sunday’s battle against expansion brethren Orlando City.
Vieira, who spoke to NYCFC’s official website for a video published on Wednesday, is not making any excuses for what he called a “really disappointing performance” against the Red Bulls while emphasizing the need for NYCFC to switch their focus to Sunday’s game against Orlando (4:30 pm ET; ESPN in the US, MLS LIVE in Canada).
“The last two days have been really difficult because we didn’t play, we didn’t perform, we let a lot of people down," Vieira said. "But you have to face the reality and the reality is that we lost and we lost badly. But in our world of football, there’s always the next match and it’s important for us to put our energy back higher, to get back to work and focus on our next match.”
While the crushing rivalry defeat has drawn plenty of derision, NYCFC are still in a solid position in the Eastern Conference. They currently sit in second place in the East, one point behind leaders Philadelphia Union. They’re fourth in the conference in points per game. Most importantly, they’re well within the playoffs by any measure.
Of course, there’s a long way to go in the regular season. NYCFC’s first chance to rebound from Saturday’s drubbing will come against their expansion rival Orlando, who they played some difficult matches against last season. The most notable encounter between the two sides in 2015 came last July at Yankee Stadium, when NYCFC overcame a hat trick from Orlando’s Cyle Larin to win 5-3 in Andrea Pirlo’s MLS debut.
After Saturday’s tough outing, NYCFC would likely prefer fewer fireworks this weekend. Vieira’s been pleased with how they’ve responded in training so far this week, and he’s expecting better things on Sunday against the Lions.
“We still believe that we have a good team, we have a good side,” Vieira said. “I was really pleased with the way the players have been working in the last few weeks. We just have to put ourselves up and keep working. We’re going to prepare the game against Orlando and we’re going to give a better performance on Sunday.”
