PHILADELPHIA — A year ago, New York City FC coach Patrick Vieira conceded the Supporters’ Shield race to Toronto FC with nearly two months remaining in the MLS regular season.
After a flurry of offseason activity which saw his team get younger and deeper, Vieira now thinks he has the squad to take on the treble winners.
“I think when you look at all the players that we bring, we’re going to be a better team,” Vieira said at the MLS SuperDraft Friday. “I believe that we’re going to be good enough to challenge Toronto.”
There are seven new signings and two more additions — goalkeeper Jeff Caldwell and defender AJ Paterson — from the SuperDraft as NYCFC begin preseason on Monday.
“I think when you look at the players that we bring we have two really good players in each position,” Vieira said. “To play will be difficult. Challenging each other, trying to get the best out of each other will help the quality of the team.”
Equally important is that NYCFC will be virtually whole at the start of preseason. That wasn’t the case last year, with players trickling in throughout the six weeks. Consider it a lesson learned for Vieira, who is embarking on his third year at the helm.
“That was a target,” he said. “I think we learned a lot from last year. We managed to sign the players early because we know there will be visa issues and that can take long. That’s something we can’t control.”
The club isn’t quite done, though, with sporting director Claudio Reyna putting help in the midfield at the top of his wish list. Vieira said the club is also hoping to add an additional defender.
“We’re not finished yet,” Vieira said. “We still have a spot in our roster so we just try to do a little more business before the deadline.”
Reyna said the club prioritized selecting a goalkeeper Friday from what he called a “good class” this year, with four ‘keepers selected in the first round of the SuperDraft.
Among those, Caldwell and Eric Dick topped the depth chart for NYCFC and when Dick went to Sporting Kansas City with the 13th overall selection, NYCFC were all in on picking Caldwell.
There were some nervy moments, though, before their pick at No. 19.
“We thought the [New York] Red Bulls were maybe going to take him. He trained with them, so did [Ben] Lundgaard,” Reyna said, referring to the goalkeeper selected by Columbus at No. 21. “We thought it could be them, but when they picked Brian White, we thought from then on it was pretty clear for us.”
Reyna touted Caldwell’s maturity, citing the University of Virginia product knocked it out of the park with his interview at the MLS Combine. Plus, Reyna said the Cavaliers played out of the back this year and Caldwell was impressive with the ball at his feet.
“He’s really good with his feet,” Reyna said. “I saw him play live this year with Virginia. He really impressed me. He’s very comfortable with the ball. It’s something he’s worked on the last four years at school. Obviously he still needs to get better, but it’s something that was one of the pluses that we saw in him as a goalkeeper.”
