Antonio Delamea Mlinar celebrates the equalizing goal by Revolution midfielder Xaiver Kouassi in the 86th minute. (Adam Hunger/USA TODAY Sports)

By Michael Lewis

FrontRowSoccer.com Editor

 

BRONX, N.Y. — Only minutes away from a home win, New York City FC once again allowed its Achilles Heel to rear its ugly head.

City gave up a devastating tying goal in the 86th minute and wound up with a disappointing 2-2 draw with the New England Revolution at Yankee Stadium Wednesday night.

Beyond allowing Xavier Kouassi to score the equalizer in the 86th minute — a six-yard header off of Kelyn Rowe’s right-wing cross — it was confounding in another way: NYCFC (6-5-3) allowed a team that had won a road game this MLS season to walk out of Yankee Stadium with a point.

New England (4-5-5) had entered the game 0-5-1 away from home.

“We can talk about conceding the goal late,” head coach Patrick Vieira said. “We can talk about the number of chances we create, but yes, we just have to be more… We can talk about concentration. We can talk about focus, but we have been naive with the way we were defending today.”

Asked what Vieira told the team afterwards, Harrison replied, “Mostly it was just a very frustrating game. He was disappointed with the result. He wanted the win and being in a position where we could have picked up the win made him even more disappointed. At the same time though, we have to get our heads back up and we have another game on Saturday that we have to focus on now.”

Second-half substitute Miguel Camargo, who entered the match with all of 87 minutes of playing time, had given the hosts a 2-1 advantage with his first goal of the season in the 64th minute, three minutes after replacing Tommy McNamara.

Striker David Villa, who was more effective in a playmaking role sent a short pass to midfielder Maxi Moralez, who penetrated down the left side to the goal line. Moralez sent the ball across the goal mouth to a waiting Camargo, who headed it past goalkeeper Brad Knighton.

In the 16th minute, Villa demonstrated his creative ability. He motored into the left side of the penalty area past three defenders before finding an open Harrison at the far post. Harrison had an easy time tapping it in.

“Villa had just a fantastic dribble outside the 18 and drew all of the defenders towards him and then played a brilliant ball across,” Harrison said. “I couldn’t have asked any more from him really.”

Only eight minutes later, New England equalized as Kei Kamara buried a header from six yards off Lee Nguygen’s corner kick to the far post past goal keeper Sean Johnson.

Now, Saturday’s home match against the ninth-place Philadelphia Union, another team that is struggling on the road, (1-3-2) becomes a must-win situation for third-place City.

Scoring Summary:
16’ – NYC: Jack Harrison (Assisted By: David Villa)
24’ – NER: Kei Kamara (Assisted By: Lee Nguyen)
64’ – NYC: Miguel Camargo (Assisted By: Maxi Moralez, David Villa)
86’ – NER: Xavier Kouassi (Assisted By: Kelyn Rowe)
Disciplinary Summary:
29’ – ATL: Gershon Koffie (Yellow Card)
81’ – NYC: David Villa (Yellow Card)
87’ – NER: Kelyn Rowe (Yellow Card)
90’ – NYC: Mikey Lopez (Yellow Card)
Lineups:    
New York City FC: Sean Johnson; Ben Sweat,  Alexander Callens, Maxime Chanot, Ethan White; Maximiliano Moralez, Thomas McNamara (61’ Miguel Camargo), Mikey Lopez; Rodney Wallace (88’ John Stertzer),  Jack Harrison (69’ Frederic Brillant), David Villa
Substitutions Not Used: Eirik Johansen, Sean Okoli, Jonathan Lewis, Kwame Awuah
New England Revolution: Brad Knighton; Kelyn Rowe, Antonio Milnar Delamea, Benjamin Angoua, Andrew Farrell (75’ Chris Tierney); Gershon Koffie (67’ Xavier Kouassi), Scott Caldwell; Diego Fagundez (64’ Juan Agudelo), Daigo Kobayashi, Lee Nguyen; Kei Kamara
Substitutions Not Used: Cody Cropper, Chris Tierney, Juan Agudelo, Femi Hollinger-Janzen

 

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.