The New York City Football Club will taking it’s two game winning streak on the road to face the Houston Dynamo, a club that many on the pitch have never faced before, having not taken on Houston since 2019. As usual, I have some questions I feel are worth bringing up, here we go:
5 QUESTIONS:
1) Can the team continue to find the back of the net? NYCFC’s slow start has been replaced with a 2 game winning streak, scoring 4 (one being an own goal) after scoring 1 in the first two matches. Can this continue? Getting 3 goals from 3 different players is certainly a positive sign, but the team’s offense has certainly slowed down since the departure of Taty Castellanos last season, with the club also focusing more on a defense first strategy (nothing wrong with that mindset). As I wrote after the match against Inter-Miami, 3 points is 3 points, any way you get ’em.
Which opens to:
2) What can we expect from Richy Ledezma? The club recently secured the 22 year old attacking midfielder, being loaned out from Real Salt Lake to PSV in the Netherlands. It’ll be interesting to see how the team incorporates the young player, injured throughout his career yet showing promise. Here’s his goal last year during a PSV club friendly against BW Lohne:
3) Is Luis Barraza settling into the starting goalkeeper’s role? Pressure was put on the 26 year old when Matt Freese was brought in to be the new backup. Barraza made a sparkling save in the middle of the second half when the score was still 2-1 so he has the skills to be the starter, but I still wonder how long it’ll be before Freese gets his chance.
4) What do we know about Houston? The Dynamo got their first win of the season last week, scoring a pair in a 2-0 win over rival Dallas, having gone with a 4-3-3 lineup in the last two matches. 3 goals on the season, 1 of which coming from Midfielder Héctor Herrera who was named team captain earlier in the week. Lastly, 3 players were called up for national duty, including starter Adalberto Carrasquilla. Speaking of national duty:
5) How will the club respond without defenders Chanot and Ilenič? The club will be without both for at least this match, having been called up to national duty themselves. Losing the veteran presence of Chanot will hurt the club somewhat, but them’s the breaks when it comes to international play. Expect the likes of Thiago Andrade and Tayvon Gray to step up in their place.
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 and is just a simple man trying to make his way in the universe.
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