Early in the second half, the floodgates opened.
New York City FC, who at that point led 1–0 in an eventual 4–0 win over Atlanta United FC on a humid evening at Yankee Stadium, in a match City were down six players due to the international break — including goalkeeper Matt Freese, forward Alonso Martínez and midfielder Aiden O’Neill — had started slow. Their only goal in the first half came from Maxi Moralez, off an Atlanta turnover in the 44th minute.
Scoring the first goal in a match is crucial. It tilts the pitch in a team’s favor. The energy and momentum start to slide. That, as New York City head coach Pascal Jansen will tell you, is the dynamic he wants to play with.
Still, at the half, Jansen wasn’t satisfied with his club’s play.
“I told my guys, if you take care of the ball just a little longer, you don’t rush it into the final third, you can get in a situation where you can dominate in a couple boxes,” Jansen said. “And after five, six minutes in the second half, that is what you saw.”
It feels appropriate to quote the legendary Don Henley, who 35 years ago wrote the perfect line to summarize Thursday’s match: “In a New York minute, everything can change.”
‘He works so hard in order to be ready’
Mounsef Bakrar looked flustered after a near-miss when play resumed. But in his mind, he just needed to look for the next chance. That’s exactly what he did. Bakrar took position at the top of the box in the 55th minute. Andrés Perea found him. He swept the ball into the top corner to double City’s lead with his second goal of the season, then waved to the home crowd in celebration.
On nights like this, with multiple starters out playing for their national teams, City’s depth players needed to step up. Players like Bakrar, who often concedes minutes to the club’s primary striker, Martínez, need to be patient for these opportunities. But they must give their all in training. When the moment calls, they need to be ready.
“He works so hard in order to be ready for the team,” Jansen said about Bakrar. “So it’s a big achievement for him.”
‘For Graz’
Two minutes later, Hannes Wolf received a pass from Moralez, and closed in on the left side of Atlanta keeper Brad Guzan. Wolf approached the goal area, intent on shooting with his left foot. He didn’t see an angle. He took it to his right, and waited for space to open up.
He slid it into the bottom right corner — the lower half of the side Bakrar had struck just moments before — and put City up 3–0 with his seventh goal of the season.
“I saw the window,” Wolf said. “And I tried to keep it to the corner.”
In celebration, Wolf lifted his game shirt, revealing a blue undershirt that read, “For the victims. For peace. For Graz.” This goal, he later explained, was dedicated to the victims of the Graz school shooting on June 10 that left 10 dead, which took place in Wolf’s hometown, Graz, Austria.
“My thoughts are there,” Wolf said. “I’m happy that I could score today and pull up my shirt and send at least a message to all the people, to all the families who lost someone on this terrible day.
“We all think too much, sometimes ‘this is bad, this is bad.’ And in these moments, you see how our life can end quick, and just horrible. And, yeah, very, very sad.”
Wolf was on the run again two minutes after that. He got a fast break behind Atlanta’s back line. As United centre-back Ronald Hernandez slid to break up the play, Wolf chipped the ball between him and Guzan. It hit one of the Atlanta bodies — Wolf couldn’t see who, but said afterward that it was “a little bit lucky” — and trickled, again, into the bottom right corner.
His eighth goal of the season made him feel just like he was a kid again.
“When I was a kid, it was always like this,” Wolf said. “When I scored once, if I scored a second, it came quick, so I felt like back in the day.”
City, attacking in the second half in the end where their supporters’ section stood, had Yankee Stadium in a frenzy and a quick 4–0 lead — the result of the fastest three-goal outburst in the club’s history.
“Hannes is in a good place right now,” Jansen said. “How he scored his goals is a good example of being connected at the right moment and knowing where you need to finish in order to get that biggest chance possible, and he clinically finished it really well. So I hope he stays in that good place for a while.”
‘The fuel we need’
For City’s players, the offensive outburst provided some much-needed insurance, given the void left by the absences of Martínez, O’Neill and Freese and the club’s lack of scoring at times this season — through one stretch in early May, they scored one goal through four matches.
“Everyone around the club knows that there was a period where we weren’t scoring so much,” Justin Haak said. “So to go have something like that today, it feels really nice.”
“When we get those goals, it gives us the fuel we need,” Birk Risa added.
But perhaps no one felt more of a lift during the onslaught than backup keeper Tomás Romero, who started in place of Freese and recorded a three-save clean sheet.
“It’s amazing,” Romero said. “Mounsef’s was an amazing goal, and then Hannes, one after another, and it just feels better. You know you’re gonna win the game.
“After all that, it’s like, ‘Alright, now we have to get the clean sheet.’ And the guys worked so hard to get that done.”
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