exactly. Look around the conference - who would you take NYCFC to best right now?
Revs? Hahahhahahah
Nashville? Two tries, not even close
Atlanta? Maybe if Josef is out but a full strength Atlanta, nope
DCU? Finding their stride now, nope
Orlando? Yes they battered O2 earlier this year but now Orlando is healthy and has Dike scoring
Philly? Also finding their stride
Montreal? Much improved since NYCFC beat them earlier this year
i can’t see based on how they have played the last eight games how you’d expect them to beat any playoff team. An offense that can’t score and a D that makes many mistakes is only going to lead you to the basement, folks.
First, you clearly misunderstood my post. We played very well for the last third of the game, but not until then.
As for the rest of your post, this team has a well developed history of turning on a dime for both good and bad in completely unpredictable ways.
2016: 1.20 PPG over first 15 games, capped by a bad loss to RSL at home.
I predicted no playoffs after the 14th game, and was hardly alone. Then they won 4 in a row to begin a 1.89 PPG run for the rest of the season and finished second.
2017: The team earned 5 points in 5 games ending May 31, dropping the PPG from 1.79 to 1.50. They then got 2.27 PPG over the next 11 games, raising the season PPG to 1.84. Then they earned just 1.22 over the final 9 and finished at 1.68.
2018: First 7 games 2.43 PPG. Next 8 games 1.38 PPG. Dome takes over and gets 2.50 PPG for six games, and the team sits at 2.05 for the year over 21 games. Then, collapse. They get just 1.00 PPG for the final 13 games.
2019: Continued struggle for 6 games with 0.83 PPG, then 2.10 for the final 28.
2020: First 13 games 1.31 PPG. Final 10 games 2.20 PPG.
Nobody predicted all, most, or even many of the turns above and generally instead we get tons of posts predicting the current good times or bad times are here to stay, and then they don't. Then everyone forgets the irrational exuberance or depression from just before the turn. After the fact, you can point to Lampard and Harrison coming off injury as the reason for 2016, and Heber for 2019. But nobody knew it at the time. And you can't even after-the-fact explain 2020, when the turn for the better came after losing the team's top 2 scorers over 2019-20.
I don't bet against streaks, and am loathe to predict when they end. I can't and won't say when or if NYCFC will suddenly start getting results. I kept thinking Dome's 19 game 2-season horror show had to end before it did because the team was better than that. But it kept going, until it didn't. Just like our current form cannot predict the next set of games, unless it does.
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