Preseason - February 3 - FC Copenhagen

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NYCFC Preseason Presented by Etihad Airways
New York City Football Club vs Football Club København (Denmark)
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - Stadium TBD
Sunday, February 3rd TBD Time

During the visit, the NYCFC first team players will have the opportunity to meet and interact with UAE fans. Away from the pitch, the players and staff will be collaborating with NYCFC Principal partner Etihad Airways to create content for the upcoming season.

NYCFC is majority owned by His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s City Football Group, which also owns Manchester City FC and Melbourne City FC.
 
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NYCFC is majority owned by His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s City Football Group, which also owns Manchester City FC and Melbourne City FC.
 
So first they move it from Youtube to Facebook so I can't watch it on my Chromecast or FireTV. Then I tune in and surprise! they are still warming up with no announced match time (thanks for getting me out of bed to watch a wide shot of warmups!), and best of all, the goals aren't even in the frame. Good start, guys. Because only a casual fan would tune in, right, not a founding STH...
 
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So first they move it from Youtube to Facebook so I can't watch it on my Chromecast or FireTV. Then I tune in and surprise! they are still warming up with no announced match time (thanks for getting me out of bed to watch a wide shot of warmups!), and best of all, the goals aren't even in the frame. Good start, guys. Because only a casual fan would tune in, right, not a founding STH...
In fairness the match started at 6 and was listed at 6. Maybe tune in at the start time?
 
So first they move it from Youtube to Facebook so I can't watch it on my Chromecast or FireTV. Then I tune in and surprise! they are still warming up with no announced match time (thanks for getting me out of bed to watch a wide shot of warmups!), and best of all, the goals aren't even in the frame. Good start, guys. Because only a casual fan would tune in, right, not a founding STH...

I have it Chromecasting via the website.
 
Worked for me once I created a burner Facebook account. Fun to see Parks, Rocha, Scally out there. Fortunate for us FCK didn't bring their scoring boots. They definitely had finishable chances.
Yeah no real hot takes for me. First preseason game. Let's see who subs in. Would like to see a Parks/Maxi central midfield.
 
Some quick impressions on the 1st half...

The team is of course very, very rusty. But what is a bit worrying is that it lacks anything you could even vaguely call creativity. The first 10 minutes pretty much NYCFC, but then Copenhagen took over. They had three clear cut chances that they couldn't convert. NYC's only was a Maxi free kick that went half a yard wide. Castellanos had a header that he couldn't put on goal.
Defensively it looks pretty solid between Callens and Ibeagha. Scally mostly invisible, because FCK comes all the time through Matarrita's flank. Ring (wearing the captain's armband) sets rhythm to all defensive play, but he stays very deep and the couple of long passes to attack that he's tried have gone astray. Rocha looks like a Lopez MkII. He has hardly anything to offer. Buster Keaton looks lively but hasn't found any real opening yet. Maxi has been invisible. The trialist (who's he? #79) on the right wing hasn't shown much. Castellanos sadly doesn't have the quality to succeed on the required level. Stuver has done well, saving N'Doyas open chance with his feet, and accidentally blocked the ball with his face, when Ibeagha turned a cross towards an own goal.

What the team lacks is a tenacious, attacking midfielder with creativity (Maxi wake up!) and a striker. There isn't anyone creating any danger to FCK's defense at the moment. Copenhagen is a good test, because they're a quality team from a continental European league, and a good yardstick.

But it's the first pre-season training game, so we must not read too much from it. Here's hoping for a good second half.
 
This is a tough watch... grainy video with no announcers just some creepy dialogue going on in the chat.
 
This is a tough watch... grainy video with no announcers just some creepy dialogue going on in the chat.
I'm actually pretty happy with the vid quality. Especially given some of the periscope style shit we've had to suffer in previous years.

And of course, right after I mention zonal marking FCK score twice on set pieces. Though I don't think you could attribute either to the zone.

ETA: 2-0 is a pretty deserved scoreline.
 
Pretty sure 0 shots in second half. But totally served its purpose. Get 45 minutes of game time on the legs for 22 players. Perspective: this used to be a game we'd play every year against some small college where we could boss the game.

Also, Ofori showed a bit. Though I still find it painful to watch the fear of death he has for using his right foot.
 
In fairness the match started at 6 and was listed at 6. Maybe tune in at the start time?
I was there at 5:55. The Janky FB video started at the beginning of the feed. I figured it out. Still FB video kinda sucks. But not as bad as the team in the second half.
 
Well, felt pretty good to finally have a match to watch. On the other hand, felt like we were playing the whole match with 10 as we have no striker. Could be an issue, ya know?
 
I'm not gonna panic here. We never had a cohesive 11 on the field.

The usual suspects (Maxi, Chanot, Ring) looked solid, if a tad rusty. Stuver had one nice save. Taty looked pretty alive and like a guy who will fight for a spot, though he had nothing to show for it. Mata still can't defend, though he and Maxi were working together OK. Sweat was active, which is not to say good.

None of the new/young guys distinguished themselves which is troubling (except maybe Scally being invisible and that's OK at the back). Lack of offense looked distressingly familiar. Lack of general effort after we went down two is pretty disappointing, too. These guys should be running their asses off for slots (Hello, Jesus!)
 
Another quickie:

FT 0-2, FCK deservedly won with two well taken goals by Skov. The first was a very good free kick, the other a shot from a lucky bounce after a corner. Caldwell couldn't have stopped either of them.

The whole team was substituted, and the formation became something like 3-5-0-0, where Sweat, Chanot and Tinny formed the defense, the rest were the midfielders, and the zeros were the player number 21 and Medina. Chanot was his usual self, giving his all. Isi and Tinnerholm brought a lot of movement to right, but as there was nobody in attack to play the ball to, they couldn't turn the game. Ofori... well he had a couple of good tackles, but anything he tried forward was hopeless. Sands looked calm and at least ok. He does much the same things as Ring, but is less nasty in tackle. Torres ran around a lot without providing much. The trialist (?) #81 made up the numbers without being too much out of his depth.

Medina is about the weakest player I've seen for some time.

With Callens, Chanot and Tinnerholm 3/4 of the defense is still sorted. The midfield of Ring, Isi (on the right wing) and by this showing I'd say Sands will go a long way. Maxi should play behind a striker, unless a good attacking midfielder becomes available (when Maxi could go to the left). The left side is a big question mark. There's no good quality LB, and neither has any of the current left wingers enough quality. But the most worrying part is that there is no proper forward in the team at all. The team needs a player who should be a target man and a striker in the same package. There aren't many available at this time of the year.

And once again: it was only the first friendly game of the close-season. No need for knee-jerks.

By the way, the FCK number 5 should have had a straight red for blatantly elbowing Isi. he only got yellow.