New York City FC are the hottest team in MLS as they enter Friday’s game against San Jose on a four-game winning streak. Head coach Nick Cushing knows that his team is playing well and has set a standard for themselves that has permeated throughout the locker room. Last week’s game against New England was below that bar and the English coach knows his team needs to step up if they hope to continue the streak.
“We know that, as a collective, it probably wasn’t up to our standard,” said Cushing about his team’s performance against New England. “We’ve consistently, as a group, spoken about how we’ve set the standard. Now it’s about consistency.”
Consistency is something that City lacked last season. While they defended well throughout portions of the 2023 campaign, the lack of finishing or putting away easier games, left them on the outside of the playoff bubble. This year, they’ve corrected that and put together and impressive run that puts their chances of making the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs at over 90 percent.
Still, there are worrying signs for City. They have a tendency to be a streaky team. Earlier in the year, the club was unable to secure points on the road, losing their first three games away from NYC and not picking up a win until May 11th against Toronto. Since then, they have put together three straight road wins and turned Yankee Stadium and Citi Field into fortresses where teams are finding it difficult to score. Over the course of this run, City have only surrendered more than one goal just once and logged a clean sheet last week against New England.
“It’s really feuled us,” said Cushing on his team’s disappointment despite the win last week. “It’s made the group a lot hungrier, even though it was another win. The hunger I’ve seen this week is actually pretty impressive.”
City have a chance to win their fifth in a row against a San Jose team that is near the bottom of the Western Conference. The Earthquakes have just one road win in 2024 and a loss could see them fall to the bottom of the West. For City, a win will push them to within four points of second place.
photo by Jordan Banks