In their 18 matches in all competitions since the beginning of May, the yellow soccer team has only been kept to one clean sheet – against Pachuca in the CCC final. Even if they shoot themselves in the foot, they still have enough ammunition in the proverbial chamber to outdo their opponents. At this point, it is perhaps more useful to consider slip-ups like Camacho’s as an integral part of Nancy’s philosophy, which requires such a management of risk and its manipulation as a means of unbalancing the opponent.

Still, it was a close affair. NYCFC made the Crew’s game more difficult than almost anyone else this season, leaving space in some areas to clog up others, bolstered by the strong defense of All-Star center Thiago Martins and Maxi Moralez’s penetration in transition. And unlike many of Columbus’ victims, the Pigeons kept the ball themselves quite often, playing their way through the Crew press to relieve pressure and ask questions of their own.

“We know which spaces they want to use, we know how they want to play, we know that in their short passing game there are many moments where they have to hit back and counterattack. But if you make too many counterattacks without scoring a goal, they also have far too much possession,” explained coach Nick Cushing, praising his players’ intelligence in reading the game and adapting.

“You saw that in the first play, even though we overwhelmed them and scored on the first play of the game. I think you saw that in the first 20 minutes, we didn’t really overwhelm them man for man; (Christian) Ramirez and Cucho came out and got the ball. And at halftime we had to make a few small tactical changes to reorganize the team in that moment.”

Despite multiple possessions, 519 passes and 18 shots on goal, Nancy’s side could only score one goal, 1.32 expected goals and an xG per shot of 0.07. Legs tired and lost precision as the mileage from the last few games piled up, and a series of injury stoppages and NYC game tactics messed up the rhythm of the game.

“Yes, definitely. It’s not easy to play every three or four days,” Nancy said when asked if fatigue was a factor. “I think it was a good game with a lot of quality. After that, both teams had a moment of weakness, I would say, and that was the moment we had to stick together. Because as I said, New York City can also keep the ball and they have good players, a good team.”

“I’m not complaining (about the busy schedule),” he added later. “I’m not complaining because if we have a lot of games, it’s because we’re playing well and winning games, and that’s also the reward for our season.”