New York City FC tries to maintain momentum at New England

Field Level Media|published: Fri 24th May, 18:47 2024

May 18, 2024; Queens, New York, USA; New York City FC forward Monsef Bakrar (9) plays the ball against New York Red Bulls defender John Tolkin (47) during the second half at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

The early-season difficulties of scoring once in a three-game losing streak to begin the season are in the past for the New York City Football Club.

Now NYCFC are one of the hotter teams in the MLS and, coming off an emotional win over the New York Red Bulls in last week's Hudson River Derby, they attempt to avoid a letdown when they facce the New England Revolution on Saturday at Foxborough, Mass.

NYCFC (7-5-2, 23 points) is 7-2-2 since scoring once, combined, in losses to Charlotte, Portland and Toronto in the opening three weeks. NYCFC eventually started 1-4-2 in its initial seven games and is on a 6-1 roll that began with an April 13 win over New England.

NYCFC has scored 13 of its 18 goals in its past seven matches, is on its second three-game winning streak of the season and attempting to win four straight for the first time since July 9-23, 2022.

The past five victories are by one goal and in last week's 2-1 home win over the Red Bulls, NYCFC's Monsef Bakrar scored his first goal of the season to snap a tie in the 64th minute and Hannes Wolf scored for the second straight game before setting up the tie-breaking tally.

"I want to say to the team, well done and we performed well and it was a great week, but that doesn't feel natural to me," NYCFC coach Nick Cushing said Thursday. "I think the standard has always been to be a team that can consistently win. We've just put ourselves in a position where potentially we can achieve something."

In the April 13 win over New England, Agustin Ojeda scored his first MLS goal in the 57th minute in his first MLS start.

New England (2-9-1, 7 points) is 1-4-0 in the five weeks since the first meeting and three of its four shutout losses are in that span.

The latest occurred last week when it took a 3-0 home loss to Philadelphia, marking the sixth time it lost by more than one goal this season. New England had three of its nine shots on target, but also conceded 20 shots.

"We want to, for the rest of the year, build a fortress at home," New England coach Caleb Porter said. "It's important. If we're going to have a chance at this thing, to get in the playoffs, we need to start winning home games."

-Field Level Media

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