Cruz Azul Goals: Palavecino 35\u2019, Paradela 78′\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York City FC Goals: Murray 45+1\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Quick Read<\/p>\n
New York City FC battled Cruz Azul in Leagues Cup action on Sunday night, with Max Murray heading home Nico Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau\u2019s free kick to cancel out Agust\u00edn Palavecino\u2019s opener. The Boys in Blue pushed for a second after halftime, but Jos\u00e9 Paradela\u2019s deflected strike in the 78th minute restored Cruz Azul\u2019s lead and ultimately proved to be the difference.<\/p>\n
\n Match Recap\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York City FC were back in Leagues Cup action on Sunday night as they took on Cruz Azul.<\/p>\n
The Boys in Blue came into the contest fresh off a 2-0 win against Santos Laguna last time out and were keen to make it two wins from two games.<\/p>\n
Pascal Jansen made three changes to the team that took on Santos, reintroducing Nico Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau, Hannes Wolf and Talles Magno in place of Malachi Jones, Kevin O\u2019Toole and Beni\u00e9 Traor\u00e9.<\/p>\n
New York City started the brighter of the two sides and almost took the lead after two minutes. Some high pressing created the opportunity for Wolf, but his shot was blocked by Erik Lira.<\/p>\n
Cruz Azul responded with a chance of their own in the 10th minute, but Agust\u00edn Palavecino was unable to keep his effort on target.<\/p>\n
A minute later, Gonzalo Piovi tried his luck from distance, and although he forced a save from Matt Freese, it was a comfortable one for the goalkeeper.<\/p>\n
Freese was called into action again not long after by Jos\u00e9 Paradela before Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau tried his luck from distance at the other end. Neither effort was able to break the deadlock.<\/p>\n
The two teams continued to trade shots at goal before Cruz Azul eventually broke the deadlock in the 35th minute.<\/p>\n
Palavecino was the man to do it, producing a well-taken strike from the edge of the area that found the bottom corner.<\/p>\n
New York City were keen to restore parity and did just that in first-half stoppage time through Max Murray.<\/p>\n
The towering defender rose highest at a free kick to head home Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau\u2019s brilliant delivery to the back post.<\/p>\n
New York City FC made a bright start to the second half, with Andr\u00e9s Perea testing Kevin Mier early on.<\/p>\n
Cruz Azul promptly responded, with Paradela firing wide before Gabriel Fern\u00e1ndez stung the palms of Freese.<\/p>\n
Jansen made a triple change just before the hour mark, introducing Mitja Ileni\u010d, Malachi Jones and Kevin O\u2019Toole in place of Gray, Agust\u00edn Ojeda and Nico Cavallo.<\/p>\n
Ileni\u010d quickly set about involving himself in the final third, drilling a shot that appeared to take a deflection before reaching Mier.<\/p>\n
New York City then came within inches of claiming the lead in the 63rd minute when a clipped pass from Jones put Talles Magno in down the right. The Brazilian fashioned a low delivery that flashed across goal and just beyond Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau\u2019s diving attempt.<\/p>\n
Jonny Shore was the next New York City player to try his luck, but his shot from distance lacked the accuracy to truly trouble Mier.<\/p>\n
Cruz Azul managed to produce several half-chances through Palavecino, Fern\u00e1ndez and Jeremy M\u00e1rquez, but they were unable to beat Freese.<\/p>\n
Jansen turned to his bench again in the 75th minute, introducing Luighi and Beni\u00e9 Traor\u00e9 in place of Talles Magno and Shore.<\/p>\n
Cruz Azul reclaimed the lead in the 78th minute through Paradela. His shot from the edge of the box took a wicked deflection off James Sands, leaving Freese with no chance.<\/p>\n
Romero then tried his best to escape the attentions of Ileni\u010d inside the box. Although he managed to get his shot away, Ileni\u010d stayed tight and deflected the ball behind with a well-timed block.<\/p>\n
New York City FC continued to push for an equazlier but Cruz Azul presented a determined obstacle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the end, the Mexican side held on to their narrow advantage to hand New York City FC a 2-1 defeat in their second Leagues Cup group game.<\/p>\n
\n What’s Next<\/p>\n
Next up for New York City FC is a Leagues Cup meeting with Necaxa on Tuesday, August 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cruz Azul Goals: Palavecino 35\u2019, Paradela 78′\u00a0 New York City FC Goals: Murray 45+1\u2019\u00a0 Quick Read New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[36920,7269,9,24,55,54,12,56],"class_list":["post-317616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-leagues-cup","tag-match-recap","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317616","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=317616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}