Don’t rule out New York City FC and an epic comeback in the Bronx on Sunday.
That’s the message Head Coach Patrick Vieira wants to transmit ahead of the second leg of the Eastern Conference semifinal vs. Columbus Crew.
READ:Major Keys to NYCFC vs. Columbus
City are down 4-1 in the tie coming out of the first meeting at the MAPFRE Stadium but the Frenchman knows that his team has what it takes to turn things around.
A 3-0 win would be enough to secure passage to the next stage and Vieira believes the fans have a crucial role to play at Yankee Stadium.
Vieira told reporters: “What went wrong is just the result of the game. I think when you look at the game itself, we created enough chances to score more than one goal but we didn’t do it.
“We showed the team a lot of video – we have to build the belief that we can do it. The way that we play, of course we can concede, but we can score a lot of goals.
“We play at home, the fans are excited about the game, every aspect will be there to support us and now we have to go into the game and give ourselves the best chance to make it happen.
“This is the beauty of the game – anything can happen. It’s just about belief and confidence.”
Columbus boss Greg Berhalter told reporters in his own media briefing that his side will try to score rather than sit deep and try to hold onto their three-goal advantage but Patrick is expecting a different game.
The Frenchman believes that the visitors are more likely to put up a low block to try and keep NYCFC at bay but, either way, Patrick says that his team will be ready.
“I expect them to sit back, have a deep block and go into counter-attack,” he said.
“We have to wait and see but when you have three goals, they will sit back and wait to counter because they have the players to do it. We’ll see, we have our gameplan and we’ll be ready. It’s an exciting challenge for us, it’s a big one, there’s no doubt about it because we’re three goals down against a very good team who play good football. We made it difficult for ourselves but it’s a really exciting challenge – we can do something quite special.
“We have all the elements to give ourselves the best shot.”
