Football Season Review

New York City FC enjoyed a brilliant campaign under new coach Patrick Vieira as they ran city rivals New York Red Bulls close in the race to finish as Eastern Conference champions only for a late dip in form bringing a disappointing end to the season. New York looked to have gambled by appointing Vieira as the replacement for the departed Jason Kreis, with the Frenchman taking over his first senior role in management, and things seemed to be going all wrong for New York as they embarked on a poor start to the season which saw them win just once in opening eight games. Vieira experimented with a three-man defense system but it was clearly not working out for the side while Andrea Pirlo and Frank Lampard continued to struggle playing together in the midfield. It was not until Vieira switched Andoni Iraola to the midfield role that New York finally started to click, with Lampard and Pirlo influencing the game from the midfield while David Villa continued to be a reliable goal-scorer, ending the campaign with 23 goals. Vieira though would have been more impressed with the emergence of both Jack Harrison and Thomas McNamara, with the duo more than matching up with their more experienced team mates and quickly established themselves in the starting lineup as New York enjoyed an excellent run of form midway through the season and barring a heavy 0-7 thrashing by New York Red Bulls, they looked in top form and emerged as genuine challengers for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. However a dip in form in the final weeks of the campaign coupled with continuing problems at the back saw them stumble at a crucial point of the season and they had to settle for a second placed finish in the end before suffering a heavy 0-7 aggregate defeat to Toronto FC in the Conference semifinals in the playoffs. Despite a poor end to the campaign, New York will be looking to the new season with renewed optimism though Vieira has to decide on how to improve the depth of the roster, especially with Lampard and Iraola both retiring at the end of last campaign while Federico Bravo and Stiven Mendoza have also left the club after their loan deals expired. No major surgery is required though and, with the right additions, New York have a squad capable of aiming for the MLS Cup once again next season

Player of the Season: David Villa