NYCFC lose to Philadelphia on quiet attacking night

Two squandered chances inside the first 33 minutes of play cost New York City FC as they lost 1-0 to Philadelphia Union in what was their final away match of the MLS regular season.

Alonso Martínez rounded Union goalkeeper Andre Blake but missed the target entirely with a shot after just one minute had elapsed, unable to cap off an opening passage of back-to-front passing from NYCFC that picked apart the Philadelphia defense.

New York City controlled things in the opening half hour and got one more great scoring chance before Philadelphia's lone goal, when Hannes Wolf skied a shot over the bar after the ball fell to him in a great scoring position after a failed clearance by Philadelphia's Olwethu Makhanya.

NYCFC's punishment for not converting either of those opportunities arrived in the form of Mikael Uhre's goal in the 40th minute, from a strike that deflected off Raul Gustavo and sent Matt Freese the wrong way. Philadelphia, unlike New York City, capitalized on a chance available to them on the counterattack, and then made that one-goal lead stand up for the next 50 minutes.

NYCFC Player Ratings: Rate the New York City FC players

NYCFC lost and lost ground in the race for home-field advantage in the MLS Cup Playoffs, while the Union clinched the Supporters’ Shield at Subaru Park on Matchday 33.

Hudson River BlueHudson River Blue Staff

Philadelphia clinched the Supporters' Shield with the win, second time they've done that in their history, though they're still waiting for a first-ever trophy won in a tournament setting, like in the MLS Cup Playoffs for example.

New York City's loss costs them a spot in the Top 4 of the Eastern Conference and means they go into Decision Day not in control of home-field advantage in Round One of the MLS Cup Playoffs, so they'll need help elsewhere in the league if they are to finish above where they sit currently, in 5th Place.

Healthy returns

The result was costly in the race for home-field advantage but the biggest positives of the night for New York City might be that striker Alonso Martínez and goalkeeper Matt Freese each were healthy enough to earn places in the Starting XI.

Martínez has battled a leg injury that kept him out of the Hudson River Derby entirely and limited him to just 30 minutes as a substitute in the midweek loss to Miami prior to that derby. While he didn't score in this game and missed NYCFC's best chance of the night, he also got 58 minutes under his belt and now heads off on national team duty with Costa Rica presumably in better physical shape, significant as the playoffs get closer.

Matt Freese got removed from the Hudson River Derby after suffering a head injury in a collision with Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting late in the first half, and there were worries he'd miss time due to a concussion. Instead he was back in goal against his former team and stood out as one of the New York City bright spots in an otherwise quiet night, making four saves and keeping it at that one-goal deficit.

Freese's best saves came early in the fourth minute to keep out a dangerous near-post strike from Milan Iloski, then in the 57th minute when he made a sprawling, diving save on a shot from Indiana Vassilev.

Freese and Martínez are NYCFC's two most important players, so even if this wasn't the winning, goal-scoring, clean-sheet-keeping return they would have liked, simply having them healthy and out there goes down as the biggest positive of the night for the visitors.

New York City 0-1 Philadelphia: 3 Thoughts

New York City FC failed to play spoiler at Subaru Park as their attack went quiet and one Union goal left the visitors lamenting their missed chances in a 1-0 defeat.

Hudson River BlueMatthew Mangam

Bench sparks not enough this time

It was a quiet night for New York City, but second-half substitutes Agustín Ojeda, Julián Fernández, and Máximo Carrizo all had moments where they looked like making a difference and changing the game. Ojeda had one of the two shots put on target for NYCFC, but he also completed two key passes late into second-half stoppage time, laying off and setting both Andrés Perea and Raul Gustavo up with shooting opportunities that were blocked by the Union.

Julián Fernández was in a dribbly mood off the bench, successfully completing three take-ons and setting up his similarly-named countryman Nico Fernández Mercau with a decent shot attempt in the 83rd minute, one that Nico headed inaccurately off target. He only had 11 touches of the ball but seemed to do something progressive and dangerous with each of them, making the most of his 13 minutes of action off the bench.

The 17-year-old Carrizo had even fewer touches in even fewer minutes while coming on as a late replacement for Maxi Moralez. Carrizo also, for a moment, looked to have a scored a sensational equalizer – but it was very obvious that Carrizo strayed offside in the move leading to his goal, making it an easy decision for the ref's assistant to raise his flag and disallow said goal. Still, points for coming close for the teenager making just his fifth career appearance with the First Team and his first for NYCFC since July 29 against Puebla in Leagues Cup.

The formula of turning to Ojeda and Julián when in need of a goal or a spark in the second half has worked lately for Pascal Jansen, but despite their efforts in Philadelphia, that equalizer wasn't coming against the Union.

End of the road

This was NYCFC's last road game of the regular season, with the loss bringing the team back to earth after they'd won four straight away games and gone unbeaten in six. The road struggles that defined the early part of the season – when NYCFC went 1W-4D-5L in their first 10 away games – melted away after June, and it no longer felt like a given that New York City would struggle and drop points when leaving the five boroughs.

This loss was a struggle, and one of the tamest attacking performances from New York City this season – inside the top-three for the lowest team expected goals (xG) number produced by NYCFC in a match this season according to FBref's data, behind only the 0-0 draw in Columbus and the 1-0 loss to LAFC, both back in March when the team's roster was thinner and attack wasn't up and firing.

The quiet night in Chester, Pennsylvania, followed one of the most productive attacking performances of the season on the "road" against the Red Bulls, so it's no longer the case that a road match guarantees NYCFC will struggle to create chances and score. Philadelphia controlled the match after their goal and held creative attackers like Maxi Moralez and Nico Fernández Mercau in check, with neither player able to make much of anything happen for themselves or their teammates.

Reader Poll: David Lee’s top signings, biggest flops

Tell us who you think were the sporting director’s biggest gets, and greatest regrets.

Hudson River BlueHudson River Blue Staff

Even when NYCFC struggles to find openings and find goals, they keep their games tight. This was the eighth New York City match in league play this season that ended with a 1-0 scoreline: NYCFC won four of those games and lost four of those games, fitting since they traded off 1-0 results home and away in their matches with the Union this season.

In total across all competitions this season, this was the 19th match out of 37 played that was decided by a one-goal margin, with NYCFC winning 11 times by a single goal while losing eight times by a single goal. The margins for NYCFC have been slim all season and they've been slim on the road, so get ready for some tight, evenly-contested playoff soccer when that kicks off in a few weeks.