New York City FC was the better team tonight, but they were held scoreless by DC United on a damp night at Audi Field.
Rather, they were held scoreless by Luis Barraza: The former NYCFC goalkeeper joined DC in the offseason, and he put in a season-best performance against his old team. Barraza's six saves earned him a stellar 8.9 rating on FotMob, and he was easily the best player on the field.
But New York City will be disappointed not to find a way to get the ball past him. The attack found the creativity they were missing in Saturday's home loss to CF Montréal, placing five shots on target and ending the night with an xG of 1.55. For Barraza, it was one point earned; for New York City, it was two points dropped.
Hudson River Blue Staff
1. Alonso misses
What happened to the confident clinicality of Alonso Martínez? The striker we hope to someday again call El Clínico took three shots on target but failed to score. In fact, Martínez last scored four games ago on April 29 — a lifetime for somebody who has a knack for finding the goal.
The quality was there. He made the runs, and found space. But he just couldn't find that finishing touch.
Alonso Martínez came oh-so-close | Courtesy newyorkcityfc.com
True, Barraza deserves much of the credit for Martínez failing to get on the scoresheet tonight. (More on that below.) But if there's one thing we learned this year, it's that when Martínez doesn't score, New York City doesn't win.
2. A back-three = tactical flexibility
We're starting to see Pascal Jansen play with formations, and stray from the City Football Group's preferred 4-3-3. Today, he started the game with something like a modified 3-4-3, with a back-three of Thiago Martins on the right, Justin Haak in the center, and Birk Risa on the left. Out of possession, the three would work together to double-team Christian Benteke and try to neutralize the attacker. In possession, Haak would advance and function as a deep midfielder.
It's hard to say if it worked. Benteke took only one shot before leaving in the 20th minute with what appeared to be an ankle injury, and when he took off Risa for left-back Nico Cavallo in the 73rd minute, the team took a more familiar shape. But it does point to tactical flexibility from the New York City head coach — will we see more creativity in his lineups in the future?
2. The Luis Barraza Derby
Going into the game, the presence of Barraza in the Starting XI was a footnote. He took over the starting spot in recent weeks, and outside of providing an assist in DC's win over New York Red Bulls at Sports Illustrated Stadium, he wasn't exactly shredding the opposition.
And yet tonight he put in a Team of the Matchday performance, preventing 1.67 goals per FotMob. Many of the saves were exceptional: Point-blank reactions, arcing dives.
New York City tried, but they just couldn't solve Barraza.
Catching up | Courtesy newyorkcityfc.com
3. Where's Wolf?
We're still waiting for Hannes Wolf to step up and make this team his.
It didn't happen tonight. We saw the Austrian loose footrace after footrace to the United defense, misplay passes in the box, and look generally disconnected from the rest of the attack.
The low point came in the 52nd minute, when New York City worked the ball up the right flank, then across the box to feed the ball to Wolf, who had an open shot on goal while Barraza was caught out of position. But Wolf scuffed the shot, sending a soft ball well to the left of the goal — it wasn't a sitter, but it was a clean chance that a former Borussia Mönchengladbach starter should bury.
4. Freese in fine form
Barraza wasn't the only goalkeeper who earned a clean sheet tonight. Matt Freese once again showed why he's one of the best shot-stoppers in the league, making two saves and ending the night with 1.19 goals prevented per FotMob.
It's a return to form for Freeze, who stumbled a little earlier in the season. This was his fifth clean sheet in 13 games, which puts him in a many-way tie for 2nd Place among Major League Soccer goalkeepers — he earned just six last year in 34 games. No doubt he would trade the clean sheet for a win, but let's acknowledge the solid performance he put in on a night when Barraza grabbed the spotlight.
5. No help from the subs
The NYCFC bench has a scoring problem: No New York City substitute has notched a goal this year.
Matthew Mangam took a deep dive into the issue into a post published in the these pages earlier today. Everything he wrote still stands — expect the stats, which need to be updated to reflect tonight's lack of productivity.
Matthew Mangam
