PURCHASE, N.Y. – While he has yet to score a goal for New York City FC, Ned Grabavoy has been an integral figure in the expansion club’s attack.
The veteran midfielder is off to a great start, but is it the best of his career?
“I think he stands out a little more in this group because he gets it,” NYCFC coach Jason Kreis said. “He understands what we’re trying to do, how we’re trying to play, with and without the ball. I think he’s been a top performer in this group and an extremely high-level player in this league for a long time. It’s not something surprising me at all.”
Kreis knows better than most, having also coached Grabavoy at Real Salt Lake from 2009-13.
Grabavoy was quietly consistent while filling a different role at RSL. There he was more of a box-to-box midfielder who had hefty defensive responsibilities. At NYCFC, Grabavoy is playing further up the park. He still has to defend, but he has
Mix Diskerud
and
Andrew Jacobson
as cover.
“In this position, it’s maybe a little easier for me to get into the final third and ultimately in and around the box more times throughout the course of the game, than where I was playing previously on most of the teams,” said Grabavoy, who has also played for the LA Galaxy, Columbus Crew and San Jose Earthquakes.
Grabavoy has flourished, albeit in a small sample size, in his new role. He leads NYCFC with two assists, both coming in the club's first win, a 2-0 victory over the New England Revolution at Yankee Stadium on March 15.
“He should have more of an ability to get involved in more of the attacks and be a central figure in some of those attacks because he has more numbers behind him to cover defensively,” Kreis said. “He still puts in the work for us on both sides of the ball, which is important.”
The change of scenery has also been a positive for Grabavoy, who wore the captain’s armband in the absence of an injured David Villa in a 1-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City on March 28.
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That, he said, is the only change in his game.
“For me, having a new group, being an older guy who has been around and been through the expansion process before, I think I’ve tried to take a little bit more of a role of being a leader,” Grabavoy said.
The versatile veteran knows from 10 years of MLS experience that it is better not to get too comfortable in this current role.
“I’m almost 100-percent certain – because it’s been this way every year – I won't play just one position this year,” Grabavoy said. “It’s really having the understanding of multiple different positions on the field. When things are going well, we’d like to be a team that kind of flows and guys are interchanging.”
