It was a street fight.

New York City FC came into BMO Field with a gameplan and executed it to perfection. Make it ugly isn’t normally a saying associated with the quote unquote Beautiful Game but sometimes it’s necessary. Especially when going against Sebastian Giovinco.

An early penalty put the Reds behind the eight ball and though they mustered a pushback, Josh Saunders was resolute in goal. Two big saves, one on a point blank poke from Michael Bradley and the other on a Luke Moore chip, kept Jason Kreis’s side in front. In the end NYCFC made it three wins in a row, defeating Toronto 2-0.

From there the game devolved into an ugly affair. In total eight yellow cards were given to each side and it can be said that the refereeing was inconsistent. In the aftermath Greg Vanney stated his team must adjust to the conditions of the game.

Here are three takeaways from the loss.

Chips? Chips

It was a chippy game. One that required patience in the final third. The Reds couldn’t find the last pass, the last ball, to open things up on the scoreboard. A goal late in the first half probably changes things.

“I think the game was choppy, physical, and never got a rhythm,” said Vanney. “They stalled and killed the game at every opportunity which was clearly a tactic and the referees allowed to happen. I thought it was a naive performance in the middle.”

Chippy would be a fair description. Chris Wingert, Andrew Jacobson and Mehdi Ballouchy did their best to slow the game down with fouls and it worked. Toronto will have to adjust, because this will be the template for teams looking to foil their formidable attacking players.

Saunders Impressive

Josh Saunders was massive for the denizens of Yankee Stadium,

A 10 minute span in the latter stages of the second half saw the Reds lay siege to the New York City goal.

Bradley’s chance, created by Ashtone Morgan on the left was foiled. Moments before Saunders got a hand to Giovinco’s free kick from a threatening position. And then, after Bradley’s chance at equalizing was foiled, Luke Moore’s smart chip was also stopped.

Saunders registered four saves in total, and all of them were prime goal scoring opportunities.

Giovinco Stymied

Sebastian Giovinco has been the best player in the league over the first four months of the season. No team had been able to stop him, but the way you would go about it, physical, clutch and grab , etc, was employed by New York.

Referee Allen Chapman allowed these incidents to go unpunished and thus the game was played in choppy breaks.

“Yeah, there is no way you can allow guys like Giovinco or Bradley any type of space on the ball," said Kreis. “The few times they did have space on the ball they nearly hurt us. We knew there were going to be times where we had to weather the storm because Toronto is a very good team.”

Job well done by New York City FC. The Reds have a chance to get back at it against Montreal midweek.

"I love that we play again on Wednesday,” said Vanney. “I hope this game pissed us off."

Indeed.