NYCFC Preseason Preview

Tommy Reynolds

1-24-20

New York City FC. - The latest news for NYCFC was their recent hiring of new manager Ronny Deila. The former celtic manager succeeded Domenec Torrent, who was in charge for only one season in New York. The team in his tenure went 18-10-6 but eventually lost to Toronto in the second round of the Audi 2019 MLS playoffs. Torrent replaced Patrick Viera in 2018 after being an assistant coach to Pep Guidiola’s Manchester City, NYCFC’s parent club.

Deila, who’s managed players such as Virgil Van Dijk of Liverpool coached Celtic from 2014-2016 before leaving to manage Valerenga in Norway for whom he played for from 2006-2008. Valerenga finished mid-table in Deila’s last season in charge.

NYCFC’s top scorer from 2019 was striker Heber Araujo dos Santos who's 15 goals was seventh in the league this past year. He joined NYCFC in March 2019 from Croatian team HNK Rijeka. Maxi Moralez, who plays attacking midfielder had 20 assists which was second in the league. He was also named an MLS All-Star in this year's all star game in Florida.

Heber and Maxi join the 9 other starters from last year's season in staying with the club at least for the pre-season. Ismael Tajouri-Shradi and Keaton Parks both have signed long term deals after joining the team last season and Gedion Zelalam, a U.S. youth international, is the newest signing brought in over the winter.

Ben Sweat, a left back that has played for NYCFC for the past three seasons left earlier this month to join David Beckham's new expansion team Inter-Miami FC. His departure has left Deila looking for more left backs as well as a couple more players to round out the squad. David Lee, NYCFC’s sporting director had this to say about the potential of new signings, “We want to add players who will improve our level, improve our squad, whether that’s players who can come in to a starting group and improve the starting group or players that can add improve the depth,” Lee said. “We’re not adverse to either of those. We’re just looking for the right players at the right value who can come in and improve our squad.”

The first two preseason games for New York have not gone to plan for Deila however as both games ended up in loses. The first on January 15th to Brazilian side Corinthians, losing 2-1 with Zelalam making his club debut in the defeat. The other defeat happened three days later to other Brazilian team Palmeiras 2-1. Both defeats came as Diela sided mostly academy players, trialists and draft picks.

NYCFC might lose the Etihad shirt sponsorship that they have had since their inaugural season back in 2015. Etihad also has been the sponsor for Manchester City since the 2014-15 season. This decision has reportedly been made by the CAA Sports who think that a change in sponsorship could lead to over €50 million in revenue per year for both NYCFC and Manchester city who have had the sponsorship since the 2009-10 season.