Embrace the Pain: Which one of NYCFC’s last 5 results hurts the most?

Well, folks, things are just not good at all right now, huh?

In hindsight, it’s not hard to understand how losing your championship-winning manager and your Golden Boot-winning striker in quick succession could have disastrous impacts on a team’s season, but I think we all thought New York City FC would cope with those departures far better than they have.

And while there is some room for optimism with the Campeones Cup tomorrow and (maybe?) the MLS Cup Playoffs on the horizon, there is still an overwhelmingly pessimistic cloud covering New York City these days.

Sometimes the best way to deal with grief is to talk it out: Let’s embrace the pain, look at it in the eye, and rank it by voting in the poll below. Consider this a form of therapy, a way to process how this terrible run of form has crushed our souls. At least we have each other, right?

Read on, then vote on which result hurts the most. The poll will close on Friday, September 16 at 5 pm ET.

1. Charlotte FC 1 - 0 NYCFC, September 10

An ugly game all around, from the weather, to the football hashmarks on the pitch, to the performances of NYCFC’s players. Not even a Christian Fuchs red card was enough to prevent the Queen City’s win, marking the first time an expansion team has ever swept a defending MLS Cup champion in MLS league play. Really tough to take many positives out of this one other than seeing Keaton Parks back in action.

2. NYCFC 1 - 1 FC Cincinnati, September 7

The was one of the more frustrating games to watch in recent memory. To dominate a game in this manner and not come away with the three points at home is just maddening, especially when much of the result can be pinpointed to a single player. We love you Thiago Martins, but the own goal/red card combo is a really tough one to swallow. At least we came away with a point, which is something we can’t say about any of the other matches on this list.

3. New England Revolution 3 - 0 NYCFC, September 4

NYCFC have not lost a game by this large a margin in what feels like forever, but somehow this team managed this fate despite generating so many quality chances. It wasn’t just that we conceded three goals to the Revolution, it was that we conceded really soft goals with lackadaisical defending across the board. How we didn’t find the net in this game is beyond me, but the defending is really what sticks in my mind about this performance: Not good enough.

4. NYCFC 1 - 2 DC United, August 31

Losing at “home” to bottom-of-the-table DC United should easily be a new low for NYCFC, but after three more poor results, it’s not so clear where the bottom is. That doesn’t change the fact that this result was super-disappointing for the Pigeons. We allowed two soft goals and failed to create the number of chances we are used to creating. And against a side that has the fewest points in the entire 28-team league? That just hurts.

5. Orlando City 2 - 1 NYCFC, August 28

This was an absolute gut punch. A 96th-minute winner from Orlando’s Tesho Akindele ripped the hearts out of already-hurting NYCFC fans. Orlando is a team that we never want to lose to, but going down in this fashion was simply devastating. Not much else to say about this one.

The poll will close on Friday, September 16 at 5 pm ET.