New York City FC staying upbeat, focusing on positives in spite of first rough stretch of season

NEW YORK – The panic button is not being pressed. There are no storm clouds hovering over New York City FC.

Yes, the expansion team is in the midst of a five-match winless streak following a 1-0 loss to the Portland Timbers, but interviews Sunday weren’t conducted in hushed tones.

The locker room remains positive.

“We’ve got some pretty mentally strong people in here, guys that have been around for a while that have been through ups and downs in the league,” said forward Patrick Mullins, who endured an eight-game losing streak last year as a member of the New England Revolution before reaching the MLS Cup. “I’ve only been in the league one year, and I went through a pretty bad losing streak last year, and that team ended up being pretty successful.”

• READ: NYCFC encouraged by performances despite losing again

NYCFC players aren’t just saying the right things. They point to the performance, especially Sunday, as evidence for why the sky isn't falling.

“We were winning balls, knocking the ball around, keeping the ball on the ground – everything,” defender Chris Wingert said. “All of those things are positives we can take out of this game and build on.”

While stats aren’t always indicative, they support the argument in this case. NYCFC outshot Portland 21-12 and had 54.3 percent of the possession. Yet, a deflected shot by Colombian Dairon Asprilla was the difference for the Timbers.

“We played all the soccer tonight, and they got all the points,” midfielder Mehdi Ballouchy said.

It was the third consecutive game NYCFC conceded a goal in the final quarter hour, which has resulted in five lost points. But head coach Jason Kreis doesn’t believe the three situations – the first two coming against Philadelphia – are related.

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“In the other two instances, I really could point to one guy and say you made a critical, critical error that led to that goal,” Kreis said. “This one, for me, no. We had guys sliding trying to do anything they can to stop a shot, and then it looked like two deflections to get in the back of our net. To me that’s just luck.”

Luck is something NYCFC haven't had, both in terms of breaks on the field and a rash of injuries in a short period of time. But the effort, goalkeeper Josh Saunders said, has been there.

“You put your work out on the field, you look for the positives, you take those away, and if you keep doing the right things, good things are going to happen,” Saunders said.

And there’s a belief that a similar effort Friday night in Chicago (7 pm ET; UDN) will yield a more positive result.

“If we play the way we did tonight, we’re going to put ourselves in a good position to get three points on the road,” defender Jeb Brovsky said.