New York City FC are on a three-game winning streak thanks to timely goal-scoring but more importantly a defense that has only given up only one goal in three games. A large part of that is due to the consistency between center backs Birk Risa and Thiago Martins, both of which have shown themselves not just to be a strong defensive pairing, but one that can help hold and distribute the ball moving forward.
“We want to be a team that is difficult to play against,” said Cushing at training on Friday. “You have to do that in our league because the teams are so competitive and matches are so tight. We’ll continue to be hard to play against. Every time we’re hard to play against we give ourselves a chance of winning.”
That winning was something that eluded City early in the season with the team staring at the potential of hitting the bottom of the table just three weeks ago. Early season injuries to Talles Magno and Maxi Moralez stifled the team’s potential. When combined with the cold spell currently being worked through by Mounsef Bakrar, City found themselves chasing games more than controlling them.
Since the 2-0 win over New England the momentum has shifted. Bakrar still isn’t scoring goals but Alonso Martinez, Santiago Rodriguez and Julian Fernandez have taken up the responsibility. Now they are controlling and threatening throughout their recent fixtures and could find themselves as high as third place at the end of the weekend should the results go their way.
“Moving forward we have to be better offensively,” said Cushing. “We have to press high to create more goal chances. It’ll give us the chance of winning and continuing to win football games. The focus and the desire has to be there.”
One question lingering will be who starts as the team’s striker. Last week Martinez proved his capabilities in a short window while Bakrar continues to put himself in the right spaces but can’t seem to find the final strike. While that question still lingers, one that doesn’t is who will patrol the defense. Risa and Martins have not only proven themselves capable but have City poised to be one of the best defenses in the league.
“We’ve started doing what we trained for,” said defender Birk Risa. “It’s the whole team. How we want to press, how the guys up front make the runs that make it easier for us to hold the line.”
City will host Colorado Rapids at Citi Field on Sunday in a game that sees the return of Chris Armas against NYCFC. More to come in the game preview later this weekend.