New York City’s Football Club and Toronto FC battled to an eventful 1-1 draw in The Bronx on Wednesday night. Here’s how it went down in the Boogie Down.
9/11
It was a beautiful start to the night at Yankee Stadium, as New York City FC hosted First Responders Night, on the occasion of the Club’s first-ever match on September 11.
Earlier in the month the NYCFC First team paid tribute to victims, survivors, families and all those affected by the events of September 11, 2001 with a team visit to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in downtown Manhattan.
Last night the team was rejoined by the FDNY and NYPD soccer teams to further honor the fallen firefighter and police officer Sergio Villanueva.
An amplified Tunnel of Honor welcomed the teams to the field, a joint color guard consisting of NYPD, FDNY, Port Authority Police and Department of Sanitation was presented, and a moment of silence was held by all in attendance.
Honors Even
The win streak was stopped at five – but as Dome said in his post-match press conference last evening at Yankee Stadium:
And who wouldn’t sign for that? NYCFC still sits in first place with a chance to add to their point total again at the weekend.
Stone Cold Sean Johnson
Sean John came up massive to stop Alejandro Pozuelo’s second penalty attempt of the night.
But he couldn’t tell you how he did it…
On saving second penalty kick, Sean said:
"In the moment, it was kind of instinctual. I think it’s rare when two PK's are given in the single game and that two taken by the same guy. I can’t remember the last time I had that happen. A retake maybe, okay, but two separate occasions it’s difficult. I just wanted to get a jump on it and stay as calm as possible in the situation."
And that he did – using his top-hand to push the ball away and give the City Boys a chance to win the game.
Dome-Nation
In Doménec Torrent’s camp, the TEAM is the most important. Always. And the NYCFC manager drew an interesting parallel on the day the United States Men’s National Basketball team bowed out of the FIBA World Cup – which the mainstream American sports media would have explained was down to missing the best players for the tournament…
Game recognize game. And it’s this team-first mentality that will take any ball club to the top of their respective sport.
With that said, New York City is in line to recover a handful of players from international duty, so the XI could look quite different on the next match day.
Blood, Sweat, and Taty
There’s no denying it was a dramatic finish in The Bronx on Wednesday, and the support from the City faithful was immense. We will need it again for the third time in a week when the Boys in Blue line up again on Saturday vs. San Jose Earthquakes.
Let’s keep working to lock down that home-field advantage.
