Talles Magno scored NYCFC’s opening goal. (Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports)

New York City FC ended its five-game homestand in style on Saturday night – with a win.

The Cityzens registered a 2-0 victory over the Columbus Crew in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 18,813 at Yankee Stadium.

That left City with a 4-0-1 mark during their its city wins at the stadium and Citi Field, scoring 16 goals and surrendering only four.

Translated, NYCFC accrued 13 out of a possible 15 points. The team is in sixth place in the MLS Eastern Conference with a 5-3-2 mark and 17 points.

“We’ve gone six or seven games now without losing and we’ve talked about putting together a streak with good results,” he said. “Our lowest level has to be so high that we get something from every game and I think we do that now. I think we attack at the right rhythm. We are starting to build relations inside the pitch. I’m very pleased we could take away a lot of points here at home. That’s important if we are going to finish as high as possible in the league. Hopefully winning and then getting to the playoffs.”

Talles Magno and Taty Castellanos found the net for the winners, while Sean Johnson racked up his fourth shutout of the homestand and fifth of the MLS season.

Magno lifted City into the lead nine minutes into the match. Santiago Rodriguez slipped him a pass. Magno faked out Steven Moreira and slotted the ball home from 16 yards on the left side of the penalty area past goalkeeper Eloy Room into the lower right corner.
“Talles is a great guy,” Castellanos said. “He works on his craft week in and week out. He’s always training and trying to get better. Personally on-and-off the field we get along great. We have a good friendship and there’s good chemistry there. Hopefully we can continue to play together many games moving forward and obviously with my experience being at the club for a while, just teaching him and helping him get adjusted to the Club and helping him in whatever way he needs to keep developing his game.”

NYCFC’s second goal, by Castellanos, was a thing of beauty. Maxi Moralez lofted a long ball from inside the visitors’ territory. The Argentine forward ran onto to and went 1 v 1 with Room, who came out of the net. Castellanos chipped it over the keeper for a 2-0 advantage in the 57th minute.

It was Castellanos’ fifth career goal against the Crew.

“In the first half we were playing too slow,” Deila said. “We started well and scored a nice goal but then we didn’t get the pressure up front. We defended in our own third of the pitch too much, too many set plays but as I said Sean [Johnson] and the central defenders did a good job inside and we worked as a team. When you are together, whatever happens, we can come through at all periods. That’s why I think in the second half we raised our game.”

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.