Nine-man NYCFC ties Bulls
Overcoming a deficit and two red cards made Wednesday’s 1-1 draw feel like a win for New York City FC. Flushing a lead and a two-man advantage left the rival Red Bulls trudging out of Yankee Stadium feeling like they’d given away two points.
David Villa scored a 52nd-minute equalizer to help lift an NYCFC team that saw two men sent off, another leave hurt and missed several because of injuries and suspensions. Then he dismissed reports saying he was mulling retirement and NYCFC was hesitant to resign him.
Wednesday underscored exactly why NYCFC better hold on to their star captain as long as they can.
“We’re very happy, because it’s not easy. We played against one of the best teams in MLS … in a derby day, two men down, a lot of injuries and people suspended,” Villa said. “[The] feeling we take the three points in Toronto probably is worse than the feeling that we take from one point [Wednesday]. I know it’s two points less, but for the future it’s really good for the character of the team, real good for the attitude of the team.”
In a nasty affair that saw eight bookings, the Red Bulls hit first. Bradley Wright-Phillips latched onto Danny Royer’s low cross and put a diving header far post past goalie Sean Johnson. It was his 12th tally in as many games against NYCFC.
Up a score, the Red Bulls went up a man when Eloi Amagat was sent off 40 minutes into his MLS debut by ref Ted Unkel for a studs-up tackle on Marc Rzatkowski. But in the second half, NYCFC took the game from the Red Bulls.
“From [Wednesday] I don’t know if there’s a positive. They go down to nine men and look better than us somehow,” Wright-Phillips said. “I don’t get it. It wasn’t good enough.”
Nowhere near good enough. NYCFC came out with two strikers for Route 1 soccer, and Jo Inge Berget — who left hurt — headed a Maxi Moralez longball down to Villa. The Spaniard put a low, left-footed shot from the edge of the box past keeper Luis Robles, who was too slow to get down.
“There’s definitely a great deal of disappointment,” Robles said. “It’s not just the result, it’s how we were so much better than them the first half, played exactly the way we wanted to and then the second half we were just naïve.”