by CHRISTIAN ARAOS

David Villa continues to recover from a hamstring injury suffered last week. The Spanish striker participated with the New York City FC first team in training on Friday and head coach Jason Kreis said he is in consideration for tomorrow night’s match against the San Jose Earthquakes.

“The difference between today and Tuesday was that he came out to do a fitness test and passed,” Kreis said. “There will be a more strenuous fitness test tomorrow so we’ll give him 24 hours to prepare but at the moment it looks pretty good.”

Villa was substituted at halftime of NYCFC’s loss to FC Dallas last Saturday and did not make the matchday roster for the team’s win against Toronto FC last Wednesday. Patrick Mullins started and played 84 minutes at center forward in Villa’s stead against Toronto but trained with the reserves on Friday.

In search of continuity

With the exception of the center forward position, the NYCFC first team was unchanged in training from the team that started Wednesday night’s match. That would include the back four of Chris Wingert, Jason Hernandez, Shay Facey and RJ Allen.

Although Kreis said the team’s defensive issues this year have extended beyond the back four, having the same starting lineup in place from game-to-game does help limit those mistakes.

“A lot of times for a coach, you need to look at results as well and if the result doesn’t go your way, you got to look at different options,” Kreis said. “You have to give other players opportunities. The entire season, that’s where we’ve been. Either injury, bad result meant that we were changing things so I’m hoping that we can maintain some continuity in our lineup.”

The recent change to the backline has resulted in increased minutes for Chris Wingert at leftback. Wingert injured his hamstring during the match against Orlando City on July 26 and lost his starting spot to Angelino as a consequence. Saturday’s match was Wingert’s first appearance since the injury and he has played the full 90 in each of the past two matches.

Despite the injury and the competition, he said he has not changed his mentality as a player.

“I’ve just been trying to stay healthy and work hard everyday and when I’m called upon, I’m ready to go,” Wingert said.

The Kinnear Effect

The Earthquakes have undergone a total transformation during head coach Dominic Kinnear’s first season with the club. The team is now far more capable of keeping possession and remaining patient in its buildup play. Although the attacking play is a little more sophisticated than in years past, the team’s defensive organization remains one of the best in the league — something that does not surprise Kreis.

“To begin with, I felt that San Jose was very similar to a Dominic Kinnear-coached team as it was originally coached by Frank Yallop,” Kreis said. “Both of them coached together and I think both of them see the game the same way. It’s an attack-minded team that wants to get forward very quickly and it’s a defensively well-organized team that’s going to create a challenge for us.”

Although Kreis did not provide any specifics onto how he would address the challenges the Earthquakes presented, he did emphasize that the team remain compact in training. He also called on the team to win the second ball and to quickly find players in pockets of space in order to break the Earthquakes’ high press. NYCFC have struggled at times to break opposing team’s high pressure and the Earthquakes’ press led to its opening goal in its draw against the Montreal Impact on Wednesday evening.

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