Falling behind by three goals was disappointing for New York City Football Club, and so was letting the extra two points slip away after squandering the lead.
While NYCFC were pleased at pulling off a huge rally, they hope to avoid a similar situation again on Sunday when they host the Atlanta United at Yankee Stadium.
NYCFC (8-4-4, 28 points) enter this weekend one point out of first place in the Eastern Conference behind Montreal, the New York Red Bulls and Philadelphia Union. The defending champions were able to snatch a point out of Wednesday’s visit to FC Cincinnati following a wild 4-4 draw.
NYCFC are winless in a season-high three straight games (0-1-2) after going 7-0-1 in their previous eight contests. After allowing the tiebreaking goal in the waning moments last Sunday in Philadelphia, NYCFC trailed 3-0 before Talles Magno scored a goal, Heber tallied twice and Gabriel Pereira converted to claim a lead at Cincinnati.
“To a man today I thought the resilience, the spirit and the heart was a real New York team,” NYCFC interim coach Nick Cushing said. “I’m really proud of that.”
NYCFC nearly earned the three points while playing without Valentin Castellanos (illness), Santiago Rodriguez (yellow card accumulation), Anton Tinnerholm (personal), Thiago Martins (ankle) and Keaton Parks (blood clot in leg). It also lost Maxime Chanot to a left leg injury.
While Martins and Parks are expected to miss Sunday’s game, Chanot and Castellanos are questionable.
Atlanta (5-7-4, 19 points) is trying to climb into playoff position but has not helped itself by going 0-5-1 over its past six road matches. The United saw their winless skid continue with a 2-1 loss to the New York Red Bulls on Thursday when they collapsed in the final minutes of the second half.
Josef Martinez scored in the 75th minute but Atlanta conceded the tying goal on a penalty kick eight minutes later. The United allowed the tiebreaking goal after a turnover in the 89th minute.
“It was just two individual mistakes at the end that cost us,” Atlanta coach Gonzalo Pineda said. “This is very tough, to be honest.”
–Field Level Media
