The Seattle Sounders close out their regular season with a match at New York City FC. To help us understand the opponent, we asked Matt Mangam of Hudson River Blue to share some insights.
Notable injuries
Keaton Parks has been hurt for pretty much the entire season, undergoing surgey in July to address blood flow issues. As important as he was to NYCFC’s midfield, Andrés Perea and Aiden O'Neill have been fantastic in his absence. O’Neill stays back and is more of a passer, while Perea gets forward and is great in the air.
Recent form
A crushing 4-0 defeat to Inter Miami ended an excellent three-game winning streak, but NYCFC bounced back with a 3-2 victory over its rivals, the New York Red Bulls. New York City most recently lost 1-0 to Philadelphia, but it had its chances to get a result out of the game. All in all, NYCFC is still in good form, boasting a record of 8W-1D-3L in its last 12 games.
Key players
Offensively, Alonso Martínez is always dangerous, leading NYCFC with 17 goals. Nicolás Fernández has finally settled in and Hannes Wolf is having a career season. Defensively, Thiago Martins has had a much better second-half of the season, and I don't need to say anything else about goalkeeper Matt Freese.
One thing opposing fans should know
NYCFC has a record of 11W-0D-5L at home this season, but some of those losses were to weaker opponents like DC United, CF Montréal and the Houston Dynamo. Basically, New York City tends to play to the level of its opponent but seems to always put up a good fight against the best teams in the league.
Projected lineup
4-2-3-1: Freese; Raul Gustavo, Haak, Thiago Martins, Gray; Perea, O'Neill; Wolf, Moralez, Nicolás Fernández; Martínez
