Overview:
There are two ways to look at New York City FC’s 1-1 draw at Toronto FC on Saturday night.
Nico Fernandez Mercau scored his 14th goals for NYCFC. (NewYork CityFC.com Photo)
There are two ways to look at New York City FC’s 1-1 draw at Toronto FC on Saturday night.
On the positive side, the Pigeons earned their second successive road tie, after securing a similar result at the New England Revolution last week.
On the flip side, the result extended the team’s MLS winless streak to five games.
Nico Fernandez Mercau’s brilliant first-half goal gave the Pigeons the lead before Toronto responded in the second half, with substitute Daniel Salloi converting Theo Corbeanu’s low cross in the 70th minute.
Goalkeeper Matt Freese made several important saves at BMO Field.
City remained in seventh place in the Eastern Conference with a 7-8-7 mark and 28 points. Tenth-place Toronto (25) moved to 5-7-10.
“I think overall it’s a fair result,” head coach Pascal Jansen said. “We were in control and very dominant in the first half, and they stepped up a little after we missed those two opportunities with Luighi and Pepe [Andres Perea]. They started to put more and more pressure on us. Throughout the second half, they had a little more possession and a little more control than we were aiming for.”
Mercau tallied his team-high 14th goal of the campaign in the 29th minute when he smashed an impressive low, 25-yard shot into the corner for a 1-0 lead.
Toronto’s best chance of the half came when Sands was robbed of the ball deep inside his own half, and a pass was flashed across the NYCFC goalmouth. Thankfully, Derrick Etienne Jr. could not get his toe on the ball to turn it home.
Djordje Mihailovic tried to level the score in first-half stoppage time, but his shot was a problem for Freese.
City almost scored early in the second half. A well-worked corner kick saw Mercau slide the ball to an unmarked Luighi but he could not place his curling shot on target.
The hosts equalized in the 70th minute. Alonso Coello sent a long ball from the back that Corbeanu latched onto on the right wing. He raced toward the end line before crossing the ball to Salloi, who knocked it at the far post to knot things up at 1-1.
“As I said to the guys in the locker room just now, it was a good first half,” Jansen said. “In the second half, you get two good opportunities to get yourself on the scoresheet again. But throughout the game, you could see we were having some difficulties controlling their right side, and that’s why we made the substitutions. Unfortunately, we didn’t control that moment, didn’t get the basics right, let our guard down, and they punished us for it. That’s a tough one to concede because, even though we were struggling to keep control on that side, it was unnecessary to concede the way we did.”