NEW YORK – Patrick Vieira is saying the right things, his team is training hard and for 90 minutes Wednesday night they appeared to finally get the three elusive points at Yankee Stadium.
But then one moment, one set piece in the dying seconds, one missed assignment on Dominic Oduro’s diving header at the near post and it was all gone.
Elation turned again to frustration. Three points were again reduced to one following a 1-1 draw with the Montreal Impact at Yankee Stadium.
“I think we played good, we deserved it more,” David Villa said after the game. “We create more than the other team in a lot of games. We give a lot of presents for the other teams always. It’s difficult because soccer is not just playing good, playing strong. We played both situations well, but we give a present [to the opponent] again.”
The present came after NYCFC defender Ronald Matarrita fouled Lucas Ontivero in a dangerous position. Impact star Didier Drogba set up to take the free kick and Oduro separated from a pair of defenders before beating Josh Saunders to the ball and putting a diving header into the goal in the first minute of second-half stoppage time.
“At the finish line, it’s just one error that we committed,” Matarrita said. “That’s why we weren’t able to win. Secondly, we just can’t commit those errors on defense. We have to not commit errors. Today that was the problem.”
Added Vieira: “On the goal we conceded at the end, it was just a lack of organization, of concentration for the 95 minutes.”
Until Oduro’s equalizer, the story of the game was RJ Allen, the second-year fullback who scored his first professional goal on a quality buildup that he started in the 51st minute.
Allen, who was later forced off the field with an ankle injury, fed Khiry Shelton, who sent a cross in front of the goal where Tommy McNamara laid the ball off. Allen continued his run and scored inside the far post from seven yards to give NYCFC the 1-0 lead.
“It was a hint of magic. It’s there,” Shelton said. “We always see it in training and it comes out in training all the time. It’s coming, we can feel it and I know a lot of the fans can see that. We’ve got to keep going.”
And that’s the message coming from the NYCFC locker room. The wins are coming as long as the gifts aren’t given.
“My feeling is that I was on the pitch and the other team when I play don’t give me the present,” Villa said. “We give a lot of presents to the other team and we need to change this situation.”
