There's a belief out there that "things come in threes," like celebrity deaths, or that it takes three instances of something to define it as a trend.
New York City FC is officially a trendsetter, because the club's loss in Chicago made it three straight matches decided by individual mistakes from New York City players.
At Soldier Field, Matt Freese made a completely puzzling decision in possession while trying to pass the ball around between his two center-backs while being pressed high by the Fire.
Freese softly hit a dribbler of a pass, in theory to Thiago Martins, but really, his pass was directly into the path of an onrushing Maren Haile-Selassie, who gladly picked off Freese's pass, took one touch to settle, and then buried the winning goal for the Fire.
Video via @USMNTDaily_ on Twitter
"Unfortunately, today, one of the two goals that we conceded is a personal mistake, which has happened in quite a bit of our games," Pascal Jansen said of that goal after the match.
"The second goal is something that I don't understand, because just prior to the moment of conceding this second goal, there's a brilliant save from Matty Freese inside the box...And for Matty to make this call in this moment during the game is a strange one for me, and that is something we have to discuss because, obviously, it's something that backfired to us," said Jansen.
More on Freese's personal situation in a bit, but in the bigger picture of NYCFC's ongoing free-fall that sending the club below the MLS Cup Playoff qualification line, the Freese error is just more of the same.
