There were many standout performances in New York City FC's 2-1 win over Tigres UANL in the Leagues Cup Round of 16 earlier tonight. Maxi Morzelz, Santiago Rodríguez, and Tayvon Gray all put up exceptional performances against a Tigres that entered this game as one of the favorites to win the tournament. Keaton Parks, James Sands, and Matt Freese all outplayed their Liga MX counterparts.
Really, there's no need to name all the players in the Starting XI and who came off the bench: The entire team looked good.
But Christian McFarlane deserves a special mention. In just his fourth start with the First Team, the 17-year-old wingback had the composure of a veteran.
On the defensive end of things, he made five recoveries while facing down Marcelo Flores, a former Arsenal youth prospect who has three goals in 11 appearances this season, then Jonathan Herrera, a 23-year-old Mexico international who was a creative force when he came on at the start of the second half. In the attack, he created two chances and made some key crosses into the box. If the finishing had been a little different, he could have earned his first assist tonight.
But more than that, McFarlane held his own against a physical, technical, and confident Tigres playing in front of a friendly crowd. His interplay with the rest of the NYCFC squad was near-seamless, with Santi and Maxi delivering balls into open space with the expectation that the tall, leggy left-back would get there first and deliver an intelligent pass or cross back into the box. You could see that New York City's two No 10s trust him with the ball, and used him to pull apart the Tigres defense.
If you charted McFarlane's improvement game-over-game it would be a simple arrow pointing up and to the right: He gets better with every appearance for the First Team. It should serve as a reminder for fans who can be impatient with young players. McFarlane has 581 minutes since making his First Team debut on June 14, and 344 of those came in Leagues Cup matches.
Or, to put it another way, close to 60% of McFarlane's career in the top flight has taken place in the last 16 days. He's learning on the job.
He's also giving us a taste of what we'll be missing when he possibly probably joins Manchester City at the end of the season.
Andrew Leigh
