Hannes Wolf: It’s fun to create chances

Hudson River Blue spoke with New York City FC attacker Hannes Wolf at the club’s training facility in Rockland County, NY. A native of Graz, Austria, the 24-year-old told us that he prefers to play as a No 10, but that depth at that position at ‘Gladbach moved him to the wings. Read on to learn more.

Note: This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Hudson River Blue: You were one of the big off-season signings for NYCFC, and everybody was excited to watch you play. But I don’t think anybody expected you to be a starter from Day 1. Did you expect to make such an immediate impact on the team?

Hannes Wolf: To be honest, yes. Because I know my qualities, and I watched the team and I know maybe that the team needs that kind of player. Because of this, I made my decision to come here, to leave Europe. After my time in Germany, I wanted to be sure that I will come to a team where I get my chances, you know? And not to come as a bench player and need to see everything from the bench.

HRB: You were confident that you would have any opportunity here?

HW: Yeah, for sure. I know my qualities, so I think now it’s more about how to score, how to achieve numbers. I think I’m close.

HRB: Last Saturday you were the most creative player on New York City, with three chances and one big chance created. Have you always been that kind of player, like a No 10? In the past, it seemed you mostly played on the wing.

HW: I started as a clear 10 in Austria in my career. The last two, three years in ‘Gladbach I played more on the wing because at the No 10 there was no space. But I see myself more as a 10, but to be honest I have no real preference. I just want to play. On the wing, right, left.

HRB: In the game on Saturday, the first half was electric, and New York City were unlucky not to score more. In the second half, it shifted. What happened?

HW: I don’t exactly know why, but I think we sat back a little bit, we stopped pressing the way we did in the first half. In the first half, we had chances. Counter-pressing — we were so good in the game, it was really fun to play.

And, yeah, in the second half, I don’t know, we stopped pressing, and they changed something in the midfield and had more space to play. And then we conceded a late goal.

HRB: You said that in the first half it was fun to play — can you tell me more about that?

HW: I think it’s always fun when you have chances. You know, when you lose the ball and two seconds later you have it back and you start again, the next attacking moment. I think the whole stadium felt that it was different from the first two games away, that we should have scored two, three goals, and the game would be finished.

But as a player, even though we didn’t score it was fun because we just had the ball and we were aggressive.

HRB: You played in the Austrian Bundesliga, the German Bundesliga, and the English Championship. What has surprised you about MLS? Even you’re only three games into the season.

HW: I’m not really surprised. But I think that maybe the league is bigger than I thought. Everywhere there are lots of people, and I didn’t expect that. In Charlotte, there were like 60,000 people, in St Louis 22,000.

I really like it so far. People told me, and I saw it from the outside, that it’s growing all the time. I think this will continue and it will be a bigger league.

HRB: What about the players? Is the size, speed, or skill level what you expected?

HW: To be honest I’m not surprised in any way. Maybe it’s a little bit better than I thought, there are a lot of good players. And tactically I think also it’s good. Maybe it’s a little bit stronger than I thought.

HRB: There’s the game coming up on Saturday against Toronto. Is there anything you want to say about what we can look forward to?

HW: We will show again how we play like we did in the first half of the last game, and then we will score.

We will try 100 percent to win this game because we know for the supporters and ourselves also that we need wins now. We’re all hungry. And we know we can do it at home.