A TWO-BAGGER: Martinezs 2 goals lift NYCFC over CF Montreal – frontrowsoccer.com

Alonso Martinez (16) scores his first goal as CF Montreal midfielder Nathan-Dylan Saliba (19) defends. (Lucas Boland-USA TODAY Sports)

By Michael Lewis

FrontRowSoccer.com Editor

Call it what you want.

A double.

A two-bagger.

As in bagging a brace.

It was quite appropriate that Alonso Martinez accomplished that feat at a baseball park, namely Citi Field, to pace New York City FC to a 2-0 victory over CF Montreal on Wednesday night.

The win lifted City (11-8-2, 35 points) into fourth place in the MLS Eastern Conference past the idle Red Bulls (9-4-8, 35) while 13th-place Montreal (22) fell to 5-9-7.

The Cityzens record their eighth home victory of the season their primary residence is Yankee Stadium. Their 8-3-1 at home is second best in the league, trailing only Los Angeles FC (9-0-2).

It was Citys third clean sheet of the campaign.

When you have a goalkeeper like Matt Freese who performed at a really high level, he deserves clean sheets, head coach Nick Cushing said.

Despite the win, Cushing felt his team should have scored more goals.

You guys watch us week in, week out, and you can see when were good, you can feel when were good because its entertaining, he said. Its good to watch goal chances. My frustration tonight is for you guys and the fans. We should put three, four, five [goals] up, thats a real New York performance. We missed too many chances tonight, but if we keep the expected goals at 2.1, 2.5, or 2,7, well win football games.

It took two minutes of waiting for NYCFC to celebrate the first goal of the match, but it was worth it.

With the game only nine minutes old, the hosts took advantage of a giveaway by Montreal right back George Campbell. Hannes Wolf passed to Martinez, who fired a 12-yard shot into the right corner past goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois.

However, the assistant referees flag was up, signifying that Martinez was offside.

After a two-minute delay due to VAR, referee Marcos de Oliveira declared the goal was good and the Cityzens had their lead and Martinez his seventh goal of the campaign. He hadnt found the net in slightly more than a month, or since he recorded a hat-trick off the bench in the 5-1 triumph past the San Jose Earthquakes on May 31.

I feel good playing as a nine, and Im just taking advantage of the opportunity that coach is giving me, Martinez said.

Just 15 seconds into first-half stoppage time Martinez almost got a brace in the as he nearly scored off yet another Montreal mistake. This time he danced in 1 v 1 on Sirois but sent his attempt just wide right.

The visitors had a couple of opportunities in the opening half, but keeper Matt Freeze was up to the task, stopping Sunusi Ibrahim in the 19th minute and then making a diving save to his left to deny Kwadwo Opoku two minutes into added time.

Martinez eventually did get his second in the 56th minute on a quick, bang-bang play. Wolf again found the Costa Rican forward and he pinged a 12-yard shot home for a two-goal advantage.

Wolf said that working with Alonso is great. Not only tonight; hes doing a lot of work and is a great striker for us. [He is] giving us a lot of good runs into space and can set the ball very well. [I am] very happy for him.

Wolf was keen to celebrate a goal of his own in the 68th minute. He came in on Sirois, but the goalie saved his attempt to keep the hosts lead at two goals.

We had a tough halftime, Freese said. We didnt perform well in the first half. We were up 1-0, but we should have been up by a lot more. We werent keeping the ball and putting pressure on our defensive end because we were not keeping the ball. When we got on the field, my focus was just to bring everyone together and just preach togetherness. Those are the moments. What I said was, these are the ones you must win; we need three points today. We want to be a top team. Theres just no question that we need to win this game today. Thats what I was saying [to the team]. We must stick together and believe in each other.

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A TWO-BAGGER: Martinezs 2 goals lift NYCFC over CF Montreal - frontrowsoccer.com