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MLS New York City FC

New York City FC Drops First

March 28, 2015 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
New York City FC News Release


Ike Opara scored a header off Matt Besler's throw-in near the corner flag in the 12 th minute as Sporting Kansas City handed New York City FC their first-ever loss - a 1-0 defeat in front of a sold-out crowd of 27,545 on a chilly Saturday evening at Yankee Stadium.

New York City FC are now 1-1-2 (5 points), while Sporting KC improves to 1-1-2 (5 points).

New York City FC had three players make their first-ever start and another trio make their team debut. The Club were without captain David Villa, midfielder Sebastian Velasquez and defender Josh Williams due to injury. Forwards Khiry Shelton and Adam Nemec were unavailable due to international call ups.

Head coach Jason Kreis gave debut starts Kwame Watson-Siriboe, Javier Calle and Patrick Mullins, subbing on Tony Taylor, Poku and Tommy McNamara for their first appearances of the season.

The Club played with added motivation in the second half vying for the equalizer.

In the 51 st minute, Calle served a ball over the top to an onrushing Mullins, but the forward couldn't control it as the ball ended up in the grasp of Sporting KC goalie Luis Marin.

Mullins was instrumental in another New York City FC opportunity, chipping a dangerous ball across the 6-yard line in the 77th. A host of players ran toward it, but it went for naught and took a deflection as it trickled out of bounds for a corner kick.

New York City FC had a pair of scoring chances in stoppage time - both headers - but neither found the back of the net. McNamara crossed the ball from the left side in the 93 rd minute and Jeb Brovsky tried to latch onto it, but it went wide of the goal. A minute later, Taylor's low cross from the right was met by Ned Grabavoy, who wore the captain's armband in Villa's absence, but his diving attempt went wide of the far post.

New York City FC return to the field on Saturday, April 11 at Philadelphia.

Post Game Notes:

New York City FC, Sporting Kansas City

Saturday March 28, 2015: 7:00 p.m. EDT

MLS Regular Season

Yankee Stadium

Scoring Summary:

12' Ike Opara SKC (Assist: Matt Besler)

Misconduct Summary:

68' Paulo Nagamura SKC (Yellow Card)

73' Mix NYCFC (Yellow Card)

86' Kwame Watson-Siriboe NYCFC (Yellow Card)

Lineups:

New York City FC: .Josh Saunders, Kwame Watson-Siriboe, Jason Hernandez, Chris Wingert, Jeb Brovsky, Mehdi Ballouchy (Kwadwo Poku 75'), Andrew Jacobson (Thomas McNamara 84'), Mix Diskerud, Ned Grabavoy (c), Javier Calle (Tony Taylor 59'), Patrick Mullins

Unused substitutes : Ryan Meara, Pablo Alvarez, Matthew Dunn, Andres Mendoza,

TOTAL SHOTS: 12; SHOTS ON GOAL: 3; FOULS: 16; OFFSIDE: 1; CORNER KICKS: 3; SAVES: 1.

Sporting Kansas City: Luis Marin; Jalil Anibaba, Ike Opara, Matt Besler (c), Seth Sinovic; Graham Zusi (Bernardo Anor 39'), Servando Carrasco, Benny Feilhaber, Paulo Nagamura (Soni Mustivar 78'), Jimmy Medranda (Jacob Peterson 67'), Dom Dwyer

Unused substitutes: Tim Melia, Amadou Dia, Kevin Ellis, Connor Hallisey,

TOTAL SHOTS: 9; SHOTS ON GOAL: 2; FOULS: 11; OFFSIDE: 2; CORNER KICKS: 2; SAVES: 3.

Referee: Edvin Jurisevic

Referee's Assistants: James Conlee, Brian Dunn

4th Official: Alex Chilowicz

Attendance: 27,545

Notes:

- Ned Grabavoy named second team captain in Club history.

- Javier Calle, Patrick Mullins and Kwame Watson-Siriboe all made their first starts for the Club.

- Thomas McNamara, Kwadwo Poku and Tony Taylor all made their Club debuts coming on as substitutes in the second half.

- Khiry Shelton Shelton missed game due to International Duty with U.S. U-23 squad

- Adam Nemec missed game while on International Duty with Slovakian national team and scoring in their Euro 2016 qualifying match victory over Luxemborg, 1-0.

- Javier Calle led the team with two shots on goal.

- Sell-out crowd of 27,545.

- This was New York City FC's first competitive loss in Club history.

Post Game QUOTES:

NEw York City FC

New York City FC head coach Jason Kreis

On when he knew David Villa would not be playing

Yesterday. We took him out to the training session yesterday to do some work on his own and hopefully build into his own ability to get involved with the rest of the team. We were trying to do that and the very last activity we were doing yesterday and he quickly said it wasn't going to work.

On if Villa's injury was something ongoing that they were trying to manage

We've been managing it since before the Orlando City match and every single game we've gotten to the point where we were very questionable about whether he was going to be available for that match. He's managed through the pain and the swelling, and we've been doing treatments with him pretty much nonstop to get him the best opportunity to play. Every time, every week he's said "feels good, I'm ready to go," and yesterday was the first time where the pain was just to unbearable this time. So we believe strongly that with a week off that he will do nothing but strengthen and physiotherapy. He won't get involved with the team at all in the training sessions . But, we believe we can get him in the right place to build up to get involved and be ready for the Philadelphia match.

On the Sporting Kansas City goal

Matt Besler has a very long throw in and Kansas City looks to take advantage of that at every opportunity. It was not a surprise to us, we talked about it yesterday in the preparation meeting and showed lots of video of it. It's also very clear that (Ike) Opara is the target for them and we put our tallest guy on him to mark him, but unfortunately Opara just beat him to the ball. The throw in was inch perfect and the ball ended up in the back of the net.

On what the team did well and what the team could improve on

I was really pleased, again, with the second half response, after going a goal down, the effort the guys put forth in the second half. The commitment level they showed to do anything that they could to get that tying goal, I think it's important to show what these guys are made of. But, again, I'm a little bit perplexed as to why we seem to be taking an entire half to figure it out because I don't think in any of the games we have been really, really good in the first half and I think you have to be when you're at home. You have to be incredible sharp with enthusiasm and energy in order to pin the opponent back in the first half when you're at home. So we need to improve on that. We still need to improve on creating possession to create attacking chances. We finished the first half with 60% of the possession but it wasn't too many good goal scoring chances. So we've got to continue to make that possession meaningful and create good chances. And the honest truth, we need to improve in all phases but this is our fourth game ever with a brand new team, but there still are times in every single game where I can walk away and say "we're going to be a good team".

On the performance of the three substitutions

I was pleased with all three substitutions, actually. (Kwadwo) Poku, Tony Taylor and Tommy McNamara, all three players I think made their debut for us and I think all three players made positive contributions and assisted in the effort to try and get that equalizing goal.

On the explanation of the non-penalty call

I did go up to the referees after the match just to ask them that question because I was completely unsure of what happened. You see the referee make the call, then I feel he is influenced by some players to go over to speak to his linesmen and he reverses the decision. At the end of the day I've been a proponent of referees doing everything they can to get the call right. If that means taking their time and discussing it with people to get it right, I have to be a proponent of that. It went against me today. I would love for him to made the call and ignored everyone else but my hope is that it will come to our benefit sometime later in the season.

On adding a forward later in the season

I would tell you that we are considering adding players at every position, really, because we can, because we left ourselves some availability to improve this group as we see fit. But I would tell you that there is no answers right now, we are still only four games in. So we are going to continue to monitor that situation and evaluate it and hopefully make a smart decision when we to and when we can.

On Ike Opara

Obviously a very good goal. He's shown over the first several matches for Kansas City how dangerous he can be on every dead ball situation. Apart from that I can't say I come away with it thinking too much about his game because that's just typical for me, I'm very, very focused on our team.

On missing Villa, Nemec and Shelton:

I don't know I can say clearly one way or another because I was really proud of the effort the guys put in. I don't think there was a moment when it would fall to somebody's foot and I said "oh, if that was Villa that's a goal," or "if that was Nemec that's a goal". I can't say there was a moment when I thought someone should have finished. I thought the guys did a good job of getting it into some really dangerous positions and it's unfortunate that the ball didn't bounce our way.

NEW YORK CITY FC GOALKEEPER JOSH SAUNDERS

On Ike Opara's goal in the 12th minute...

Opportunistic play for them. Obviously, they get the ball deep in our half on a throw and it's one of those things that we talked about before the game. They're going to be dangerous on set pieces and throws and corner kicks. Ike got up very well. I thought we played very well. I thought we came out very well in the second half and we were dangerous.

On a new combination of defenders playing in front of him...

No, I mean you look at the chances they had. How many saves? Maybe one save, two saves. That's no different than any other game. I thought our back line played very well. I thought the guys that stepped in did very well.

NEW YORK CITY FC MIDFIELDER MIX DISKERUD

On the club suffering its first loss...

It always stings. It's not fun to lose. At least, not home games. Just go home right now, lie in bed for a long time, and probably fall asleep at three o'clock in the morning. That's what happens when you lose games.

On noticing the crowd during match...

Oh, fantastic. Definitely. What was it-24,000? Last week was incredible. This week was amazing. You can really hear the crowd out there. I think it was an entertaining soccer match at least, because a lot of stuff happened. For those that watched, I think they had a good time and saw that we gave 100 percent in every duel and tackle. We tried to get that last goal, but luck wasn't on our side today.

On this being a frustrating night for the team...

Of course it's frustrating to not be able to score those goals when we had those chances, but that's soccer sometimes. It felt like a draw would be a fair result, maybe, in this game. The first half, we didn't create too many chances but we had the ball. Almost made it there in the second half, but we came to more chances. We won a lot of second balls in their box and they managed to block a lot. All honor to them. I got a lot of good friends there. Matt Besler had a good game. I want him to win games, but not when he's playing us.

Peter Vermes Post Game

Peter Vermes on his defense today:

I thought that the first half overall as a team we were pretty good. I think what happened in the second half everything changed because we were up a goal. They came out...it's their place. They've got to try and get back into the game and they threw a lot of numbers forward. Where we could have broke them was there were a couple of really good chances for us to catch them on the counter in transition, but we didn't. But I thought for the majority of time we defended very well. We gave up a couple of opportunities, but at the same time so did they. I guess at the end it was a fair result for sure.

On the discussion of a penalty at the end of the game:

It was from the perspective of what happened a couple of weeks ago when we played Dallas and the guy scores a goal and five guys were offside when he scored. So if this was going to be a mistake that would not have only been a good decision, but it would have been a bad week for a lot of people.

On Ike Opara's perfomance with the departure of Aurelien Collin:

He's tremendous. The guy is a monster. There's never been a question of whether or not he can be that guy and take over that position. I would tell you that I think that he's the best player in the league in the air. He's tremendous. He's got incredible timing in the air. He's excellent on attacking set pieces. This is his second goal already in four games. He should have scored last week on a goal as well and he should have scored against Dallas as well. He's been really, really dangerous. I think he's played very well in that position. He's been a monster for us.

On whether Ike Opara can stay healthy this season:

I'd like to hope so. Our medical staff has worked a lot with him. Our fitness guys have worked a lot with him. Some of the injuries that he's had though have been more of just bad luck. Last year what happened to him was more of another player actually causing the knee injury to him, as opposed to the other way around. Hopefully he's going to continue to stay in. I think one of the biggest things for players like him is that if you get a good number of games in a row it gives you a routine and you're kind of there regularly.

On the midfield play today:

I think the first half was much better as a team. I thought that we had enough energy and enough moments where timing was pretty decent to get out and press the ball. It wasn't great every time. We gave up some stuff, but all in all I think what we did was that we took a lot of opportunities where they usually get in and around the box and we pushed them 60, 50 yards away from goal where Mix would have to go back and get the ball. Different players would have to be in those positions as opposed to being right round at the top of the box. If it pops out there, it's a shot on goal. The first half was very good. The second half could have been a little better, but the conditions could have been a little better. The wind was a serious factor for both teams. I also think that being it was so cold, the field was very slick and more importantly frozen underneath. So I think for the players their footing was a little off there.

Sporting KC Defender Ike Opara

On returning from injury to play...

You know, I think I've taken a whole new perspective...when I first came back early on I think I was putting pressure on myself, [I was] just trying to make up for lost time in a sense but I think now I'm just having fun. I realize that each game is one that I should cherish and appreciate because it could be done just like that...I just enjoy [it] and have fun with each [match], just take it game by game."

On David Villa's absence...

When we walked in the stadium and they put the lineups out, we saw that he wasn't playing...It would have been nice to test ourselves against David Villa but this is what the game called for so we're not going to complain too much, maybe next time."

Sporting KC Defender Matt Besler

On team-preparation for the match...

Our coaches do a really good job preparing our team. All week long our grounds crew painted a field that had the same dimensions as this field. So we've been training on a field that was 68 yards long all week...we knew where the ball was getting to on a consistent basis, fortunately Ike was able to finish it off."

On the play of Ike Opara...

He's playing great. Anytime he can contribute, like when he can contribute scoring goals it helps and it gives a player a lot of confidence. Other than scoring the goals, defensively he's been outstanding; he's been a rock and has been making plays when he needs to. It has been a pleasure to play with him so far.

On playing in Yankee Stadium...

It was great, they nailed it. It was a little cold for me, but it was fantastic. Even when you get here; we got in late last night and it took a while to fall asleep because when you're in New York City the energy is different than anywhere else in the world.

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