It’s been under the radar, but the New York City Football Club has quietly picked up 8 points in their last 5 matches and as of this writing, have a shot to get back into 8th or even 9th place in the East with a win over DC United at Citi Field on Saturday April 20. On paper this is as good a matchup as the team got last week playing at home; NYCFC has 23 points in 10 matches at home against DC (albeit all at Yankee Stadium up to this point), however DC has both Christian Benteke and his 6 goals this season which I will go into shortly, plus it sees the return of one time 3rd string goalkeeper Cody Mizell, who was traded to DC United in the offseason and promptly became the team’s goalkeeper coach. Because I’m a stat dweeb and because it’s seems people gravitate towards that side of me, gonna toss out a few numbers ahead of the match tomorrow night:
5 STATS
1) NYCFC could actually be in a playoff spot (as of this writing Friday morning). That seems
given how the team was after three matches and getting zero points but is DEFINITELY a positive. However, here’s the catch: Chicago has to get 1 point or less AND either Toronto 1 point or less OR a Montreal loss plus an NYCFC win. That would give the Pidgeons 11 points on the season to everyone else’s 9 or 10 points.
2) There’s Christian Benteke, then everyone else on DC United. Benteke is tied for the league lead with 6 goals on the season and those 6 goals are exactly half of DC United’s 12 this season. So stopping him and his average of 2+ shots on goal per match is 100% key.
3) As mentioned, the team has picked up 8 points in their last 5 matches. The difference being frankly night and day defensively from the first 3 matches to the last 5. By comparison:
First 3 matches – 1 GF/5 GA
Last 5 matches – 6 GF/4 GA
While the last 5 matches aren’t massive, it’s absolutely an improvement. And there’s a lot of reasons to be excited going into this match tomorrow, because:
4) NYCFC has had success against DC United at home, going 7W-1L-2D in 10 home matches thus far. Their only loss was back in 2022, dropping the match by a 2-1 score. It’ll be interesting to see how DC responds to playing at Citi Field for the first time, plus what kind of insight Cody Mizell could bring to his new team. While the roster has had heavy turnover since Mizell came in back in 2021, personally I’m always edgy when someone who is a coach faces his old team for the first time, even in a case such as this one. The insight into the nuances of players could play a factor in how DC handles NYC this time around.
5) Santiago Rodriguez is on track to set personal bests. His best season as goal scorer was 6 back in Uruguay in 2019 and team best of 5 last season. Thus far this year he’s at 3 in 8 matches which would play out to 12+ if the numbers hold. Definitely a better outpouring than last season, when Gabriel Pereira had 6 and was gone by summer.
So what do YOU think will happen? Can the team get 3 points? Lemme know your thoughts. Until next time, stay awesome.
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.
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