Defensive disaster leads NYCFC to fall 5-1 to the Philadelphia Union

On a gloomy Wednesday evening, New York City FC welcomed the Philadelphia Union to Yankees Stadium.  The Pigeons were desperate for a Major League Soccer win, for the last time they secured three points was July 3 against CF Montréal.  They had games where they could have won, like Chicago Fire FC, but the Pigeons could not get the job done.

Hence, NYCFC was hoping to turn things around against Philadelphia.  The visitors are in the middle of a tough season and only had seven wins entering this fixture, which is not normal for them.  Plus, the home team already beat them in 2024.  They won 2-1 in Pennsylvania and even had an extra teammate join the club, Raquinho.  The raccoon charmed many around the country with how he avoided capture.

That game was during the best stretch of the season when NYCFC won eight of nine matches.  The Pigeons were hopeful they could find that magic again and end the winless streak.

Sadly, that did not happen.  Instead, NYCFC was a defensive disaster in the 5-1 loss to the Union.  There is now another game that can be considered for the worst loss of the season.

Poor defense leads NYCFC to a terrible loss against the Union

NYCFC spent the first seven or eight minutes controlling the pace of play.  They came out hungry, but that burst soon died down.  As a result, Philadelphia got on the board first.  The Boys in Blue struggled to clear the ball after a corner kick, and eventually, it fell to Tai Baribo.  The forward has been hot as of late, so with perfect precision, he headed the ball down into the right side of the goal.  The power made Matt Freese powerless to make the save.

This in turn led NYCFC to some messy play.  There were some poor passes and Philadelphia took charge.  The visitors then doubled their lead in the 25th minute due to a mistake by Thiago Martins.  The center-back gave the ball away in the box, and his fellow defenders could not save his mistake.  Mikael Uhre easily slotted the ball into the goal.

But wait, the pain was not over.  The Union again scored in the 31st minute after a rare Freese mistake.  The goalkeeper dropped the ball, and Dániel Gazdag pounced to break the hearts of the fans at Yankee Stadium.

At the very least, Alonso Martínez got one back in the last seconds of stoppage time.  His karate chop-like goal meant NYCFC was only down 3-1 at the half.

Yet, despite the Costa Rican’s goal, Nick Cushing substituted him and Hannes Wolf off for Mounsef Bakrar and Andrés Perea in the 58th minute.  His halftime subs were fine, but what went through his mind to take off the team’s best scorer as of late?

Bakrar did have a good chance in the 66th minute.  He had space in front of him and chipped the ball towards the goal.  Philadelphia’s keeper, Andrew Vincent Rick, got back in time to send the ball out.  That was going in, but the young player’s superb save kept the score at 3-1.

In complete honesty, NYCFC was playing a better second half until Cushing made his final change.  He took out Strahinja Tanasijević for Jovan Mijatović.  Just a few minutes later, Philadelphia had a set piece via a corner kick.  So what happens?  Jakob Glesnes powerfully heads the ball past Freese, scoring the fourth goal in the 74th.  Eleven minutes later, Jesús Bueno added the fifth to completely tear supporters’ hearts in half.

The defensive disaster class was atrocious.  NYCFC was playing a team that sat below the playoff line.  Moreover, the backline should have been better.  Freese and Martins should not have made those mistakes.  It was not like Cushing put out a poor Starting XI. Rather, it was a strong one.  So what happened?

The result is not a good look, especially with Inter Miami CF coming to town this weekend.  Yes, NYCFC beat them in a friendly last year when Lionel Messi played, but the team was different compared to this year.  Yes, they tied in Florida earlier in the season, but there were some players like Messi missing.  Moreover, this draw was right before the brilliant stretch, when supporters thought maybe things were getting better for the Pigeons.  Even the Leagues Cup run created hope.

Alas, that was not the case.  NYCFC is now winless in eight matches, hope is dwindling, and the calls for Cushing to be fired will likely be in full force before the end of the week.