By Carlos De Jesus IV Contributor Bronx Chronicle Sports
When the final whistle blew at Yankee stadium following a 5-2 thumping in favor of NYCFC, it had a feeling of mercy you would expect after a one sided heavyweight fight. Those were the scenes in the Bronx Thursday night as FC Cincinnati were left licking their wounds, stuck dwelling in the basement of the MLS Eastern Conference.
“There are a lot of things we need to address” said Cincinnati Head Coach Yoan Damet “But today is a big disappointment, especially in the first half.”
The first half that Damet was left lamenting about was encapsulated in the opening thirty minutes, when the scintillating Blues absolutely blitzed the unsuspecting opposition. Filling the net three times before the half hour mark, the Pigeons turned the Thursday night contest into a laugher to the delight of the 18,000 in attendance.
“There was so much space going forward we could have scored 7 or 8” said a delighted Anton Tinnerholm “but then we go and score 2 own goals”
Those two own goals seemed to keep Blues head coach Dome Torrent from fully enjoying the evening, as his team took their foot off the gas and allowed sloppy defence to stain an otherwise superb evening. “I’m happy just for the first 20 minutes” said Torrent “we have to respect the game because they are a good team. But I am very happy for our fans because it’s the first home game after four games away.”
The Blues faithful missed out on enjoying a home game for the entire month of May, as their wacky schedule continues to frustrate. Playing second fiddle to the New York Yankees demanding schedule has it’s lows, but when the opening whistle blew NYCFC came out the gates like jovial kids famished for home cooking. They consumed the energy of their fans and unleashed a performance that all in attendance certainly deserved.
“We just face it as it is and luckily it has gone well for us.” said Maxi Morales on dealing with their awkward schedule. He felt it was the teams duty to send a message to their fans, specifically saying “Thank you for coming out on a weekday, it’s an odd time but I think we did our part and we left you with happiness and a lot of goals, so thank you.”
Thursdays victory marked an impressive 10th game in a row for the Blues without a loss. But with the defense in flux due to losing starters to International duty, and a possible lengthy injury to young star James Sands looming, this team has not had it an easy go of it as Captain Alex Ring can attest to.
“We go through rough patches” said the Captain “but its little things that you need to change in order for it to work like a well oiled machine”
The offense is certainly well oiled as of late, with burgeoning star striker Heber leading the line, tallying six goals in his last eight games including his first career MLS brace Thursday night. But with top ranked opposition waiting ahead, including a showdown with first place Philadelphia looming later this month, that never say die attitude will have to persist.
“The last two games where we go down and come back to equal the game, it just shows the morale we have at the moment” said the Captain “We have to stay humble and keep working.”
This is a team patiently taking it one game at a time, securing points as they quietly sit five points off of first place with two games in hand. With a cup game coming up next week, and a flush of home games following into July, their morale and momentum sees them stalking the top spot. And who would have seen that coming? It seems nearly everyone dressed in Sky Blue Thursday night.
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