Crew allows two goals in second half, gives up 2-1 lead

When New York City FC took the field Saturday night, it was down more than $11.5 million in designated player salary.

Forward David Villa, dubbed the best striker in the league by Crew coach Gregg Berhalter, was too ill to leave the team hotel. One of the league’s best ball distributors, midfielder Andrea Pirlo, sat on the bench.

And perhaps most important, Crew SC was playing at Mapfre Stadium, where it hadn’t lost this season after four home

games. All the factors were there for the Crew to help its cause with another three points at home, but it couldn’t close the door.

A goal advantage turned into a goal deficit in 12 minutes of the second half, and the Crew deteriorated, suffering a 3-2 loss to NYCFC in front of 17,336.

“The way I see it is we lost total control of the match after we scored our second goal. Complete control,” Berhalter said. “The movement wasn’t good enough, the passing wasn’t good enough, the ability to win balls from them wasn’t good enough, and to be honest they deserved it.”

The Crew (4-4-1) took a 2-1 lead when Ethan Finlay pounced on an Alexander Callens blunder on the edge of the box in the 49th minute, sliding the ball between Federico Higuain’s legs to Ola Kamara, who finished for his fifth goal of the season.

NYCFC then put the Crew on the defensive, and 19-year-old Yangel Herrera was a pest for the back line. He erased the lead in the 64th minute with a goal and made another heads-up play 12 minutes later. Herrera intercepted a lateral pass from Harrison Afful just above the box in the 76th

minute and found Jack Harrison, who netted the go-ahead goal.

“To be honest, I didn’t see there was a man on (defender) Nico (Naess),” Afful said. “If I had seen him earlier, I would have kicked the ball long.”

NYCFC (4-3-1) took advantage of a Jukka Raitala turnover in the eighth minute to take a 1-0 lead. Harrison chipped a left-footed shot over goalkeeper Zack Steffen, putting the Crew down by a goal before the 23rd minute for the fourth straight game.

The Crew tied the score

in the 29th minute, when Justin Meram found Raitala, who redeemed himself with a well-struck left-footed cross into the box. Not missing a beat, Higuain swung a left-footed volley past goalkeeper Sean Johnson.

A three-game homestand for Crew SC continues Saturday against the New England Revolution.

“We’ve got to light a fire, man,” captain Wil Trapp said. “We’ve got to snap out of it and attack teams.”