A week after coming off the bench to make his MLS debut, Maxime Chanot earned his first start for New York City FC in a 0-0 draw with the San Jose Earthquakes at Avaya Stadium Friday night.
With Jefferson Mena nursing a hamstring injury, Chanot started alongside Frederic Brillant at the center of an NYCFC defense that registered its sixth clean sheet of the season.
“I am feeling good. Like I said, we’ve got real quality players on this team and it is always simple to play with players like that,” Chanot said. “It was my first start. I am happy about myself and I can say thank you to all my lads, because like I told you they make my game easy.”
PHOTOS: New York City FC at San Jose Earthquakes
After having just one training session before making his debut in the 5-1 win over the Colorado Rapids last Saturday, Chanot had a full week to get more acclimated with his new teammates and it showed on the pitch.
“I felt really good with all the defenders. We worked hard during the last week with the coach,” Chanot said. “I think we did well tonight as a defense. We took a lot and the team really introduced me well so it was much easier for me to play with the team, especially the defense.”
Chanot made sure NYCFC left San Jose with a point with a spectacular sliding tackle to snuff out an open chance by Earthquakes leading scorer Chris Wondolowski six minutes from full time.
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“I think we did a job tonight, even though we are disappointed because we didn’t get the three points,” Chanot said. “Next week we are going to try to play better football and go back with three points.”
NYCFC coach Patrick Vieira lauded the work of Chanot and the entire back four, as well as goalkeeper Josh Saunders, who made four saves to keep the clean sheet.
“I think when you analyze the game, not conceding a goal, our back four plus the keeper had to perform well,” Vieira said. “And I was really pleased with our performance, because coming here and play the way we did tonight – we didn’t play our best football, but I think on the other side we defended quite really well.”
