With a predilection for jazz and a nice glass of red wine, Domènec Torrent should fit well into the culture of New York City.
The alto saxophone player from Catalonia, Spain, is best known as Pep Guardiola’s former top lieutenant at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City. He now also has a perfect record as head coach of the New York City Football Club following a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Toronto FC Sunday night.
It was Torrent’s first match in charge, but he’d watched nine NYCFC matches from overseas in the nearly two weeks he waited for a work visa from the U.S. government.
“I think they are better than they think,” Torrent said of his new players. “They have more quality – it’s my opinion. When I watched the last nine games, I thought, ‘It’s an amazing team.’”
Central defender Sebastien Ibeagha said Torrent is right.
“We just need to have the confidence going into every single game and we’ll play like we did against Atlanta and the second half today,” Ibeagha said after Sunday’s match.
When NYCFC tied Atlanta 1-1 prior to the international break, Vieira still managed the team. He left shortly after and the club immediately named Torrent to the post, although bureaucratic tape the color of Torrent’s preferred wine delayed his arrival. Despite the extended period without a manager, wingback Anton Tinnerholm expected a positive result Sunday.
“We showed today we have good character as a team – we’ve had almost two weeks without a coach,” Tinnerholm said. “We have our philosophy – we know how to play.”
Tinnerholm suggested the impact of the new coach was limited against TFC; Torrent arrived late Friday night, conducted a training session Saturday and managed his first game a day later.
“This game, we didn’t change much to be fair,” Tinnerholm said. “He’s been here for a day.”
Torrent did however express some of the specific tactics he will develop over time.
“I think he put his stamp on how he wants us to play,” Ibeagha said. “He came in and we had a pretty long meeting on how he wants us to press and how he wanted us to play. It was great, we got a feel for him. The more time we get to spend with him this whole week, next week will be even better.”