New York City FC coach Jason Kreis is perfectly aware of Philadelphia’s winless record, and he couldn’t care less. He said the Union are unlucky not to have won two of those games, and said frankly his team is coming off an unacceptable performance of its own, and aren’t in a position to take anyone lightly.
Kreis’ NYCFC travels to PPL Park in Chester, Pa., for the first leg of its home-and-home against the Union. Considering they’re coming off their first loss, and the Union are just 0-3-2 with an MLS-worst minus-four goal differential, those are points they can’t afford to drop.
“Philadelphia doesn’t have a win yet, but they deserved two wins, honestly,’’ Kreis said. “They were better than their opponents in two matches that they played. One game got an extremely poor call against them, while the second they got run over in the extra time. But for me they were the better team in both those matches, and they’re a better team than their record indicates.
“On top of that they’re going to be extremely emotional about trying to get their first win at home. … We need to realize as well that we’re not in a comfortable position either. We need to continue to improve and focus on ourselves to get our performances to be more consistent.’’
Their last performance, a 1-0 home loss to Sporting Kansas City two weeks ago, left much to be desired. David Villa, Adam Nemec, Sebastian Velasquez, Josh Williams, Shay Facey and Khiry Shelton all missed that game because of injury, suspension or international call-ups; all but Shelton had been starters.
“But for me that still wasn’t an excuse, because I think the performance could have and should have been better,’’ said Kreis, who should have all those players back Saturday.
“I feel good. I’ve been training the whole week. My adductor is fine. I’m ready for the game,’’ Villa said through a translator. “It was an injury from preseason, but I recovered and then I feel fine because I wanted to play. But then the adductor said no more, and I recovered in two weeks, and I’m fine.’’
Villa suffered the adductor injury during training camp, but with last week off to rest it, he’s convinced it won’t be a problem moving forward. Meanwhile, the Union have plenty of problems.
Philadelphia was on the verge of a road win last week, before coughing up two stoppage-time goals — both off corner kicks — in a 3-2 loss at Sporting KC. The Union have conceded nine goals, with an MLS-high seven off set pieces (corners, free kicks and throw-ins). In a league in which less than 40 percent of the goals this year have been from set pieces, that’s a glaring Achilles’ heel.
Union coach Jim Curtain benched starting keeper Rais Mbolhi, a former World Cup starter and Designated Player reportedly earning $500,000. Now Villa, Mix Diskerud and the NYCFC attack get to face John McCarthy, a 21-year-old third-string rookie.
And while Kreis tried to downplay the edge they could have on set pieces (“I think you’re putting too much weight onto it,’’ he said), it was hard to overstate the importance of getting results in this home-and-home Saturday and April 16.
Because of a conflict with the Yankees-Red Sox game, YES will air the NYCFC game in its entirety at about 5 p.m., after the Bombers’ postgame show. It will be streamed live via the FOX Sports GO app to YES viewers with Cablevision/Optimum and Time Warner.