The New York City Football Club picked up it’s 3rd win of the year with a 2-1 win at Citi Field against Nashville SC, leapfrogging the southern club into 56th place in the East. On a soggy night in Queens, the Cityzens jumped out to an early (and possibly surprisingly lead) over a club that up to this point in the season had given up a league low 2 goals on the season. Just 11 minutes in Keaton Parks took a header to the right of Nashville goalkeeper Joe Willis for the 1-0 score. Just 14 minutes later Defender Maxime Chanot’s swinging right leg shot off a corner kick quickly made it 2-0 in front of a crowd of 18,687.
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In the second half Nashville’s changed approach put the Gents in Blue on the back foot, capped by a Hany Mukhtar goal to the left side of the net at the 80th minute. Despite facing 6 shots, Goalkeeper Luis Barraza was able to keep Nashville to just the one goal as NYCFC held on for the 2-1 win. After the match, head coach Nick Cushing talked about playing at Citi Field and what it meant. “I definitely feel the atmosphere. Like I said in the dressing room before [the match], we know our crowd here feeds off our attacking play, if we can get the ball in the box and we can start to play by getting Gabriel [Pereira], Richy [Ledezma], and Talles [Magno] playing together, we know we can get the atmosphere up. I don’t know what it is but we have had really exciting games here [Citi Field]. Even in the [FC] Cincinnati game where it ended 1-1. We had four, five, or six really good chances to win that game. I love the feel of it here. I love the energy and the atmosphere. My favorite part is when we win and we go celebrate with the fans. We just hope we can do it again next week. It is about rest and recovery now, as well as hard work. We’ll get the same feeling next week if we can put the performance in.”
Next up for NYCFC is one final game on the homestand, once again at Citi Field, this time against FC Dallas, who sit in 4th place in the west with 11 points.
5 NOTES
1) NYCFC improves to 3-0-1 at home this season. Additionally the club hasn’t lost in any home game since August 31, 2022 when they lost 2-1 to DC United at Red Bull Arena.
2) Speaking of home field advantage, Citi Field has been exceptional to NYCFC. Including this win the team has picked up 11 points in 5 matches, not including last year’s 3-0 win in the first round of the playoffs against Inter Miami.
3) 18 year old Defender Mitja Ilenic has an assist in each of the last two games. Although still early, this puts him in a tie for the team lead with Gabriel Pereira. Speaking of Mijta, check out this interview we had with him last week, where he talks about his adjustment to NYC, his training routine, cheat day foods and more:
4) Next week the team finishes it’s 3 game homestand against FC Dallas, a club they faced in Texas last year to a 1-0 win. Overall the Cityzens are 2-1-4 against the Toros, including 1-0-2 at home. This will be the first time the two clubs face off at Citi Field.
About the author – Scott Churchson has been an actor in every way for the past 13 years, from BG to stand in to stunts and principal, a sports writer for the past 4 and is one of the people that created Stream Punk Entertainment. He’s married to a veterinarian, has a cat with three working legs, a mother-in-law who just moved in and is just a simple man trying to make his way in the universe.