New York City FC, Columbus Crew SC play to 2-2 draw
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Via NYCFC) – Kwadwo Poku scored his first-career Major League Soccer brace as New York City FC and Columbus Crew SC played to a 2-2 draw in front of 15,514 at MAPFRE Stadium on a rainy Wednesday night.
New York City FC improve to 7-11-7 (28 points) and are now level with Orlando City SC and Montreal Impact on points in the Eastern Conference, while the Crew are 9-8-8 (35 points) as the race to qualify for the MLS playoffs continues to intensify.
The score was tied at 2-all when referee Allen Chapman signaled for a halt in play in the 77th minute due to lightning in the area. The clock remained at 76:15 for 75 minutes before play resumed.
The Crew took a 1-0 lead in the 24th minute on a goal by Kei Kamara, who extended his league-leading tally to 18 goals on the season. Ethan Finlay drove down the right side and crossed the ball to the middle as Kamara tapped it home.
The score remained 1-0 at halftime.
New York City FC equalized in the 57th on a lovely give-and-go between Poku and David Villa. Despite having Tyson Wahl draped on his back, Poku received the ball and flicked it to Villa on his left. The New York City FC captain dribbled and fed an enticing through ball into the 18-yard box as Poku continued his run. The Ghanaian midfielder clipped the ball with the outside of his right foot into the far post to knot the match at 1-1.
It was Villa’s seventh assist of the season, tying him for the Club lead along with Poku.
Poku put the Club ahead in the 66th minute. Andrea Pirlo whipped in a corner kick to the far post that Andrew Jacobson headed back into a dangerous area as Poku one-timed his side-footed effort into the back of the net.
It is Poku’s first-career MLS brace and second this season; he scored two goals in the U.S. Open Cup Fourth Round match against the Cosmos on June 17.
Columbus responded six minutes later as substitute Cedrick Mabwati capped a give-and-go with Kamara with a neat finish to make the score 2-2.
New York City FC continue their road trip with a match at the Western Conference-leading Los Angeles Galaxy (12-7-7; 43 points) on Sunday. Kickoff is 3 p.m. ET from the StubHub Center (ESPN, 970 AM, WQBU).
POST-GAME NOTES
New York City FC 2, Columbus Crew SC 2
Wednesday August 19, 2015: 7:30 p.m. EDT
MLS Regular Season
Mapfre Stadium
Scoring Summary:
24’ Kei Kemara, CLB (Assisted by Ethan Finlay)
57’ Kwadwo Poku, NYC (Assisted by David Villa)
67’ Kwadwo Poku, NYC (Assisted by Andrew Jacobson and Andrea Pirlo)
72’ Cedric, CLB (Assisted by Kei Kemara)
Misconduct Summary:
51’ David Villa, NYC (Yellow Card: Unsporting Behavior)
90’+3’ Josh Saunders (Yellow Card: Time Wasting)
90’+4’ Andoni Iraola (Yellow Card: Unsporting Behavior)
Lineups:
New York City FC:.Josh Saunders, Jason Hernandez, Jefferson Mena, Andoni Iraola, Angelino, Andrew Jacobson, Mix Diskerud (Velasquez, 83’), Thomas McNamara (Grabavoy, 89’), Andrea Pirlo, Kwadwo Poku (Mullins, 90’+3’), David Villa
Unused substitutes: Ryan Meara, Chris Wingert, RJ Allen, Pablo Alvarez
TOTAL SHOTS: 15; SHOTS ON GOAL: 4; FOULS: 10; OFFSIDE: 2; CORNER KICKS: 6; SAVES: 2.
Columbus Crew SC: Steve Clark, Tyson Wahl, Michael Parkhurst, Waylon Francis, Harrison Afful (Hector Jimenez, 61’), Tony Tchani, Justin Meram (Cedric, 67’), Federico Higuain, Ethan Finlay, Wil Trapp, Kei Kamara
Unused substitutes: Brad Stuver, Chris Klute, Mohammed Saeid, Kevan George, Jack McInerney
TOTAL SHOTS: 16; SHOTS ON GOAL: 4; FOULS: 7; OFFSIDE: 1; CORNER KICKS: 9; SAVES: 2.
Referee: Allen Chapman
Referee’s Assistants: Eric Boria and Jeremy Hanson
4th Official: Sorin Stoica
Attendance: 15,514
POST-GAME QUOTES
NEW YORK CITY FC HEAD COACH JASON KREIS
On the play of Poku
“He’s an important player for us right now. Making critical plays for us in the attacking half of the field, so I’m really, really pleased with that. But I also know there’s still improvement to be made defensively.”
On takeaways from tonight’s game moving forward
“I think that we need to feel good about the fact that we got one point in a very difficult place to play against what I think is a very good team. To come back from being down a goal in the first half again, shows our guys that we can do it, that we can play. I think there was a lot of really good soccer out there tonight, so I feel good about it and hopefully the players do as well.”
On the rain delay
“Yeah, I think it was a little bit unfortunate, but I think you can look at the flip side of that and say that they had just scored the second goal so perhaps the momentum was on their side. So I honestly don’t think it was a benefit to either team, although I wasn’t really pleased by the way my team finished the game.”
NEW YORK CITY FC MIDFIELDER KWADWO POKU
On his level of confidence in his game
“Good. That’s why I am in there, to create and score some goals, so it has been good.”
On why he has been playing so well as of late
“Just working with these players around me has given me confidence. I have the ability and I can do it, so I should keep going.
On if he has experienced a weather delay before
“Yeah, I experienced them back when I was in the NASL with the [Atlanta] Silverbacks. We experienced those kind of [delays]. It is hard to play through it, but it is what we have to do.”
NEW YORK CITY FC GOALKEEPER JOSH SAUNDERS
On the importance of getting a point tonight
“Yeah obviously it’s huge for us, Because that puts us pretty much right on the line of the team above us, I think they’re one point ahead of us, so anytime you can come from behind on the road and get a point out of it is great. Obviously we had a chance to win the game, but we’ll take the result. Moving into another road game, a four-point road trip would be amazing. So we look to go after LA when we get there, but tonight we’ll take the result. I thought Poku was excellent, I thought our movement in the second half was great, they capitalized on a couple plays and we look to improve on that.
On the rain delay
“Actually here in 2010, we had a rain delay. Came back out and the game was tied and we ended up losing.”
On the defense’s performance
“Yeah I thought they did a really good job, I thought we had a couple really good performances at times, and then there was a couple tackles that J (Jason Hernandez) made late on in the game that were great. He came out after the delay and played excellent, I thought he pushed us through it.”
