Playoff-Bound NYCFC Silences Critics

Just a year ago, journalists and pundits were condemning New York City FC as a disaster, a farm team, a mistake, and an embarrassment before it even got to finish its expansion season in Major League Soccer. A year later, NYCFC has comfortably clinched its first-ever MLS playoffs berth, and still has an outside chance to win the Supporters’ Shield.

It never made sense to me. As early as 2013, so many journalists, pundits, and fans were openly predicting every reason why NYCFC would fail, and almost relishing it, while also claiming they want MLS to succeed. 

A curious thing since, if you want MLS to succeed, then why would you consistently label the club as a failure and embarrassment before they barely even got started? It’s in, by far, the most important market in North America, a home to 9 million, with a metro-area population of 20 million. With so many of these critics having big platforms, being able to shape the narrative and influence public opinion before the club even got off the ground, this unfair attitude towards NYCFC already put its chances of attracting discerning New York soccer fans at a disadvantage.

With MLS desperate for bigger TV ratings to be able to negotiate a much more lucrative TV rights deal, maiming NYCFC in the court of public opinion could have been devastating. With MLS wanting media recognition and legitimacy in America’s most important City, why then would you so lazily and irresponsibly lambaste the project in the Media Capital of the World, on your considerable platforms and to your thousands of followers?

This was happening, whether critics understood they were doing it or not. It was done so recklessly that it was almost as if they thought that no NYCFC fans could possibly exist, but they did.

The first-ever meeting of New York City FC supporters, which laid the foundation for the Third Rail, chaired by Chance Michaels at the Football Factory on February 22, 2014.

It was a number that started as a few dozen as early as 2013, to hundreds, later to at least many tens of thousands. Fortunately for MLS and those who hope for its future success, these New York soccer fans that only ever wanted their own team held onto this bold vision and continued to believe and support.

When critics tried to make New York City fans look foolish by asking, “How can you support a team that doesn’t even exist yet”, these same fans understood that it wasn’t about who coaches or plays on the team; it’s about where this team plays, the community this club represents, and building a foundation of support for it that reflects that.

When so many taunted NYCFC and its fans with “New York City is a farm team and nothing more” just because Frank Lampard voluntarily extended his stay in Manchester a few months, and because Patrick Vieira wanted his first real job coaching a senior side, New York City fans were smart enough to understand that the entire future story of a club is not written after one expansion season, or by a few near-sighted journalists that lacked perspective, or wrote something controversial for clicks. NYCFC fans understood that the sky wasn't falling, and that these lazy, popular narratives had no foundation in reality.

They also had the critical thinking ability to realize that the MLS of today will almost certainly not be the MLS of tomorrow. They knew that as MLS grew in stature, spending power, quality, and relevance, so too would New York City FC.

Moreover, with NYCFC’s majority owner being one of the very wealthiest people on the planet, and the minority owner being American sports royalty, New York City FC would be the most-likely club to set the standard as the most ambitious, liberally-spending clubs in Major League Soccer. So far, they're living up to that expectation.

Why is that significant? Well, if we’ve learned anything from clubs like Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester City, PSG, Barcelona and Bayern Munich: The more money you have and are able to spend, the better you seem to perform and the more fans you seem to attract. Weird coincidence, I know.

New Yorkers were also smart enough to understand that if anyone is going to be able to build a soccer stadium in New York City, it’s CFG. They saw what they did in Manchester, and their track record there is spotless. They knew that if anyone was going to be able to afford to build a stadium in the 5 Boroughs, and have the resources to sweeten the pot for the City to give them the green light to do it, it was always only going to be City Football Group.

Incredible that so many intelligent, respected “experts”, with so much knowledge of the game, were focused solely on any perceived negatives of the CFG ownership and were so quick to pass a final judgement on New York City FC in its infancy. Always assuming the worse. Always ignoring the obvious reasons for optimism. Rarely, if ever, updating their negative narratives when they were proven to be embarrassingly off the mark. 

Now, New York City has a strong, playoff-bound team with dedicated, high-performing designated players and very exciting young talent. And for all the asinine speculation about Vieira coming to NYCFC solely to “develop” for a future Manchester City job, all he has proven to be is an extremely passionate and talented manager in his first season in MLS, bringing the right balance of fire and calm to his players, with values like humility fortified by his cool confidence. So far, Vieira has only proven to be “the real deal” with only one job on his mind.

Contrary to popular assumptions, Vieira has brought no Manchester City youth team players to “develop” for this “farm team” this season. And besides for the shared sky blue, there are absolutely no signs of attempting to market Manchester City to New York City citizens through New York City FC or MLS. So much for that laughable narrative that NYCFC exists only as a marketing tool for Manchester City.

This is without mentioning all of NYCFC’s many community initiatives. NYCFC already have two academy teams, and a robust affiliate feeder network that reaches throughout the New York City metro area, including New Jersey and Connecticut, with our local kids being trained by the guy who has helped develop Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas, and Raheem Sterling. They have donated to many local charities and frequently help support activities in the local soccer community, much like NYCFC's much-maligned, but always socially-conscious supporter groups. An “unmitigated disaster” and “embarrassment", indeed.

Then there's the NYC Soccer Initiative where NYCFC will be building 50 mini soccer pitches for children in underserved areas, giving these children designated areas to play soccer and live a healthier lifestyle, helping develop the American player right here in New York. 

CFG also just purchased 17 acres of land in order to build their first-team training center in Orangeburg, New York. It's funny how much a club can get done when it's given a year or two to actually operate. Who knows what other news of progress NYCFC might reveal to us in the future?

Surprise, surprise, it almost seems like CFG did have other plans for New York City FC after all. I know its supporters did, and that’s really all that matters. As I’ve always said, New York City FC would always be what its supporters made it. It was always up to them and always will be as long as the club exists. 

I think most fans, and any reasonable person, would agree that it was definitely a good thing that MLS didn't wait the potentially 7-to-10 years (or more) it might take for CFG to finally build New York City's stadium in the 5 boroughs first, before putting its first expansion team in NYC. Why, in the world, would you want to make the fans of New York City wait any longer? Why wouldn't you immediately accept CFG's immense investment potential, and the Yankees' prestige and pull in the City? Why not build a fanbase and tradition now so that NYCFC can hit the ground running in its new home when its finally built?

Good thing for Major League Soccer, and everyone that hopes it can become one of the very best leagues in the world, that CFG and NYCFC fans had much more vision than so many others who were so stubbornly sure they knew better. But, hey, you don't hear from those pessimistic experts so much anymore, do ya? Maybe they lost interest because, for them, watching a successful, thriving New York City FC team is no longer fun? Hard to say.

But as a big fan of the The Godfather films, I'd like to close us out with a quote from New York's own Don Michael Corleone: 

"I hope they will have the decency to clear my name with the same publicity with which they have now besmirched it."

Eh, I wouldn't hold my breath. But, I will see you in the playoffs. 

Soccer

MLS

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Written by

NYCFCWatch

NYCFC Nation

Independent New York City Football Club coverage

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