American capitalism is fixated on growth as a measure of success: It’s not how many units you move, it’s how many more you move compared to the last quarter. By that standard, New York City FC should be pleased with the result they earned last night against the Chicago Fire at a chilly, blustery Soldier Field. The 1-1 draw was an improvement over last week’s dispiriting 0-2 loss in Nashville. Against Chicago, NYCFC created chances, took shots, and scored their first goal of the season.
But it’s hard to be excited about a game in which New York City often looked disjointed and timid. NYCFC were out-possessed and out-passed by a Chicago that usually don’t like to keep the ball, and looked shaky for long stretches throughout the match.
New York City now have one point after two games, and while that won’t change the minds of the pundits who picked the team to miss the playoffs this year, fans of the team can take some comfort that the club rebuild might not be so painful now that James Sands returned to the Starting XI and Santiago Rodríguez came on as a late sub. So what if Sands left the game with a hamstring injury, and Santi looked out of sync with the rest of the team? We’ll choose to ignore that for now: The glass isn’t two-thirds empty, it’s one-third full.
