Every manager will take three points if offered, but some wins are more cathartic – and valuable in the standings – than others. New York City FC’s 2-0 victory over Eastern Conference foe CF Montréal was one of those results for Nick Cushing.
Heading into Wednesday night’s match at Yankee Stadium, the Cityzens’ season was hanging by a thread as they sat buried at 13th place in the Eastern Conference, with Inter Miami CF breathing down their neck from 14th and each of the teams above them boasting a game in hand – including Montréal, who still occupy a Wild Card place but missed the opportunity to gain ground on the crowded field behind them.
Jam-packed standings
Though NYCFC remain in 13th, they’re now within striking distance of the Audi 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs line, just three points back of ninth-place Chicago Fire FC with seven games to go. It’s a massive result for Cushing’s side, but one that sheds light on all the work still to come to avoid a first postseason miss since 2015 (expansion year).
“[We’ll] maybe enjoy it for 10 more minutes, but it's back to work because we're not second getting closer to first. I'm realistic. And I don't want to get ahead of ourselves,” Cushing said after the match. “But I'm really proud of the guys. I thought there were some excellent individual performances, and I thought there were some excellent partnerships that played really, really well together.”
Many of those performances came from players added in the last two transfer windows as NYCFC have largely overhauled the core group that led them to an MLS Cup 2021 title and an Eastern Conference Final run in 2022. Key departures over the last few years included club icons like Sean Johnson, Anton Tinnerholm, Alexander Callens and Taty Castellanos, all while other big-time players like Maxi Moralez, Santiago Rodríguez and James Sands have cycled off and then back onto the roster.
Adding to the roster churn, veteran center back Maxime Chanot departed just this week for AC Ajaccio in Ligue 2, a move Cushing said was disappointing to fellow center backs Thiago Martins and Birk Risa, in that he "leaves us in a difficult moment.”
But that disappointment didn't seem to slow either player down on Wednesday, with Risa having a strong performance as he helped NYCFC keep a shutout in the back and assisted on the team’s second goal, scored by fellow summer signing, striker Mounsef Bakrar. Risa and Bakrar were two of six total players in Cushing’s starting XI who signed in the last two windows, which bodes well for the future, but also highlights the difficulties faced this season.
“It's not ideal to be trying to gel a team in a two-week period… but it is what is,” offered Cushing about the team’s continual roster turnover through 2023. “I’m not gonna make an excuse over it.”
Mission critical
Another challenge of adding so many players late in the season is regulars losing their spots, which was the case for Young Designated Player Talles Magno, who made the bench but didn’t feature in the match. Still, Cushing maintains his players are sticking together regardless of playing time, eager to pull in the same direction for the season’s final push.
“There is not one guy in that dressing room that isn't all in for this team and isn't all in for trying to make the playoffs, whether they're in the team or not in the team,” said Cushing.
The second-year NYCFC coach, who’s spent 17 years in the City Football Group organization, feels a similar sense of duty for the club: “I will fight with every ounce of my body to make sure this team gets into the playoffs. I'm an honest guy and a fair guy. Whatever the result is, whatever the situation is, I will work 24 hours to fight.”
And with three games remaining against teams they’ll need to vault in order to reach the playoffs, there’s plenty NYCFC can fight for. Next, they host a streaking Vancouver Whitecaps FC side aiming to make their own move toward the top of the Western Conference standings (Saturday, 3:30 pm ET | .
The rapid-fire succession of meaningful games has inspired Cushing to adopt a phrase used by a fellow New York coach, Robert Saleh of the NFL's Jets, on the docuseries 'Hard Knocks': “That coach says ‘all gas, no breaks,’ and I love that saying because for us, especially these next four home games, we have to play all gas, no breaks.”
