On a night with so much at stake, New York City FC failed to get the job done in Queens, losing 2-1 to the Seattle Sounders.
The first half was not the prettiest for neutrals watching on, or Seattle and New York City fans for that matter. It was a half plagued by injury delays, VAR checks, yellow cards, and a lack of quality football, and it saw both teams enter the break scoreless.
The second half was quite a different story. Coming out of the break it was NYCFC who started asking some questions early. However, Seattle struck first through Jordan Morris, then a late Sounders goal scored in the 87th minute saw the hosts unable to crawl back into the game. Here’s three thoughts on that disappointing result to close out the NYCFC regular season.
Hudson River Blue Staff
1. Lack of attack
A lack of attacking prowess was on display tonight by New York City, and was especially apparent in the first half. In a match with huge implications on the line, the timid first half performance was something that left many fans scratching their heads.
Alonso Martínez was looking to get back on the MLS score sheet off the back of a successful international break where he bagged two goals and an assist against Nicaragua in Costa Rica's World Cup Qualifiers.
Unfortunately, the Costa Rican was ineffective in the first half on Saturday night. His involvement early on in the second half was encouraging, and he had a half chance in the 90th minute while in on goal that went just wide of the post.
The blame cannot go just to Martínez, however, as he received little to no service. The wing play was incredibly limited with Hannes Wolf unable to create anything for himself and his teammates. Jansen turned to Agustín Ojeda and Julian Fernández off the bench to put a spark in the side but they were unable to thread the needle.
