Following Louisville City FC stopping New York Red Bull II’s home winning streak at four, defender and captain Hassan Ndam was perfectly blunt about his team’s performance.
“We weren’t good enough,” said Ndam. “Louisville is a really good team, and when we’re not good enough, they’re going to take advantage of that. Today, Louisville did a pretty good job and scored six goals. The back four, who I just talked to – my teammates and my coach talked – we were not good enough. Nothing was great, we didn’t play like a Red Bull team.”
“It’s disappointing,” added midfielder Jose Aguinaga. “We were working, we put good work in the week, we knew what they were dangerous on. Likely we knew they were going to whip some good balls and they scored off two set pieces, so definitely not good enough for us. We still managed to put four in, it wasn’t enough as you said.”
NYRB II jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, with Andrew Tinari and Ethan Kutler’s early goals giving the home side a lead 14 minutes in. When asked about his side losing the lead, Ndam made sure that it was known the loss was not mental, or on the midfield – it was a team effort:
“I don’t know what happened,” Ndam said. “We moved our foot off of the gas, and they just kept playing long balls. I don’t want to point any fingers at anybody. I’m just saying that we weren’t good enough. We have to be better on the field – move the ball forward, step up the line. We didn’t do that again today.”
However, neither player is going to drag their feet. With NYRB II having a week and a half before their next home match against North Carolina FC, both Aguinaga and Ndam are ready to get to work:
“For the team, it’s good we have three days off,” Aguinaga said. “Trying to be back and stronger for the last part of the season. For myself, it’s just trying to keep working hard, as hard as I’ve been doing.”
“In midseason, we have to put our head down again,” added Ndam. “One more time, I’m saying that we have to keep working. Especially me, I need to put my head down and keep working moving forward, get ready for the next game.”
“We have to put our head down moving forward and get ready for the playoffs.”
NYRB II will look to rebound from Friday’s result on Tuesday, August 21, as they host North Carolina FC at MSU Soccer Park. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. ET.
