NYCFC<\/a> opened its campaign with 10 points to go top of the Eastern Conference, but the Boys in Blue have mustered just two points in the seven games.\u00a0<\/p>\nIn several of those games, however, NYCFC could blame a combination of misfortune or bad finishing. That was not the case on Sunday, with the hosts failing to create a single chance of note despite dominating possession in an incredibly limited display up front.\u00a0<\/p>\n
NYCFC faced few chances themselves but proved far too soft defending long throw ins, which caused chaos in the home penalty area and led to both DC goals.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got ourselves into a bit of trouble with throw-ins,\u201d Jansen said. \u201cYou have to defend those moments with your life.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cComing off a strong game against Red Bull, we expected more from today.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Chances were few and far between in a drab first half, but the hosts could have taken an early lead when Agust\u00edn Ojeda chased down a long ball and flashed an effort across the face of goal with DC \u2018keeper Sean Johnson scrambling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
DC, meanwhile, was largely restricted to shots from range, with Munteanu going closest with a speculative 25-yard half-volley that whistled past Matt Freese\u2019s post.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
But set pieces have been NYCFC\u2019s achilles heel this season and so it proved again on Sunday, with the visitors taking the lead just shy of the half-hour mark when a long throw caused havoc in the home penalty area. Kai Trewin failed to clear his lines, with Munteanu on hand to prod home from close range after the ensuing pinball.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The hosts offered little by way of response, with Nicol\u00e1s Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau registering their first shot on target on 38 minutes when he whipped a free kick toward the top corner. Johnson was alert to claw the effort away without too much difficulty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
NYCFC\u2019s creative problems continued after the interval, with Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau again going closest with a fierce long-range shot that Johnson was able to beat away with relative ease.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
In reality, DC looked the more threatening and could have extended their lead on 72 minutes when Freese raced out of his area to clear a long ball but got the clearance all wrong. Munteanu could not find the empty net from distance, however.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The hosts once again failed to clear their lines from the resulting throw-in, with Parks harshly adjudged to have pulled down Lucas Bartlett in the area. Referee Ismail Elfath pointed straight to the spot, with Munteanu sending Freese the wrong way to double the DC advantage with 15 minutes remaining.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very, very hard for me to understand what happened,\u201d Jansen said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it was worth a pen.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
NYCFC struggled to test Johnson in the closing stages as what was already a modest Citi Field crowd streamed toward the exits.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
The result leaves NYCFC in ninth in the Eastern Conference and without a league win since a 3-1 win over Colorado on March 14. DC United, meanwhile, rises to fifth in the East after a second straight league win.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City FC\u2019s (NYCFC) winless run continued Sunday afternoon as Pascal Jansen\u2019s side slumped to a listless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[86327,6583,74016,9,24,402,64571,63,6584,64572,122,124,123,400],"class_list":["post-219171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-dc-united","tag-mls","tag-mls-eastern-conference","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-fc","tag-nicolu00e1s-fernu00e1ndez-mercau","tag-nyc","tag-nycfc","tag-pascal-jansen","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}