Seventeen seconds is all it took for New York City FC to open the scoring in their 3-1 win over Nashville at Red Bull Arena on Sunday evening.
Santiago Rodríguez’s goal 17 seconds into the game set the tone for the rest of the afternoon. He went on to score his second 17 minutes later, and Alonso Martínez made it 3-0 just 21 minutes into the half with his 16th goal of the season.
Nashville’s Hany Mukhtar goal in the 58th minute gave life to the already-eliminated away side, but NYCFC’s defense stood tall to see out the win, which keeps them in Fifth Place in the Eastern Conference.
New York City: 11 shots, 4 shots on target, 42.8% possession, 445 passes, 82.7% pass accuracy, 7 fouls, 4 saves
Nashville: 22 shots, 5 shots on target, 57.2% possession, 659 passes, 89.8% pass accuracy, 11 fouls, 1 save
Goals:
• New York City, Santiago Rodríguez, 1′
• New York City, Santiago Rodríguez, 18′
• New York City, Alonso Martínez, 21′
• Nashville, Hany Mukhtar, 58′
Attendance: 13,409
Lightning-fast start
New York City scored the opening goal in the first 16 minutes for the third straight game. This time, though, it took just 17 seconds for Santiago Rodríguez to score his 11th goal of the season. It was the second-fastest goal in club history, but fastest in MLS play.
OTRO DÍA NORMAL EN LA OFICINA 💼 pic.twitter.com/K8qYSwE4Vt
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) October 6, 2024
Just 17 minutes later, Hannes Wolf and Rodríguez linked up for NYCFC’s second goal of the afternoon. Wolf played a perfect ball to the back post, finding Rodríguez for the simple tap-in. It was Wolf’s 13th goal involvement of the season, but just his first since July 20, when he scored on Orlando City.
A GOAL MADE IN AUSTRIA AND FINISHED IN URUGUAY 🤝 pic.twitter.com/RfAYRcVw1h
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) October 6, 2024
But the scoring didn’t stop there. Three minutes later, a Rodríguez corner that bounced around the Nashville box eventually hit off Alonso Martínez’s leg for his 16th goal of the season and New York City’s 600th overall in all competitions.
NOTHING NEW FOR THIS MAN 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/kJpmdCNlDB
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) October 6, 2024
NYCFC was comfortably up 3-0 at the break, but Nashville had several chances that should’ve been goals – Alex Muyl hit the crossbar, and Jacob Shaffelburg and Hany Mukhtar had shots blocked.
Still can’t keep a clean sheet
New York City’s defense has been praised in recent years, but the team has not kept a clean sheet in their last 10 MLS games.
NYCFC seemed poised to end that trend against a lifeless Nashville attack led by only Mukhtar and Sam Surridge. But the streak was extended when the 2022 MLS MVP was open at the top of the box. Shaffelburg played the ball back to the edge of the 18, and Mukhtar was there to finish the shot into the back of the net. No New York City defender came out to close him down, allowing Mukhtar the time to place his shot perfectly.
The game could have nearly gotten out of hand for NYCFC had it not been for Matt Freese’s heroic efforts. He made an impressive double save off a Nashville corner kick, denying Walker Zimmerman and then Jack Maher.
HE'S A KEEPER 🙌 pic.twitter.com/bWu0XTKm8o
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) October 6, 2024
After the game, Nick Cushing spoke on New York City’s recent struggle to keep clean sheets and revealed that he knew the team would concede more goals this season due to attacking much more.
“We’re gonna be aggressive, we’re gonna be on the front foot, we’re gonna expose our defenders, we’re gonna give our goalkeeper many more shots to save,” he said. “The fact that we’ve conceded more goals comes from me because it’s a tradeoff. You can’t sit and be aggressive and you can’t be aggressive and not give space.”
#NYCFC head coach Nick Cushing on the team's 10th straight MLS game without a clean sheet. pic.twitter.com/DrCa5tHcCx
— Matthew Mangam (@MatthewMangam) October 7, 2024
With that being said, expect NYCFC’s lack of clean sheets to continue in the playoffs and beyond with Cushing at the helm.
Hudson River Blue Staff
One more game left in the season
New York City will have a week off before they travel up north to play CF Montréal on Decision Day. NYCFC has a good record against the team from Quebec, beating them 14 times and losing just twice.
That highly sought-after Fourth-Place spot may be out of reach, though. Orlando City would have to lose to Atlanta United on Decision Day for New York City to even have a chance to overtake them, and considering the fact Orlando is the most in-form MLS team post-Leagues Cup, winning six of their last eight games, it’s not likely that they’ll lose.
One thing is for sure, though, Freese and NYCFC will be spending a few days off before preparing for their final game of the regular season against Montréal on October 19.
Matt Freese on conceding the goal to Nashville, the international break, and the rest of the season. #NYCFC pic.twitter.com/2jHLDxW6nM
— Matthew Mangam (@MatthewMangam) October 6, 2024
Andrew Leigh
• Nashville, Walker Zimmerman, yellow card, foul 45+2′
• Nashville, Patrick Yazbek, yellow card, foul 60′
Officials
• Referee: Sergii Boiko
• Assistant referees: Cory Parker, Cameron Blanchard
• Fourth official: Sergii Demianchuk
• VAR: Chris Penso
• Assistant VAR: Joshua Patlak
I have mixed feelings about this match. It was wonderful to get the win, continuing the momentum and maintaining an outside chance at 4th place. On the other hand, Nashville SC clearly in bad form right now, yet if they hadn’t flubbed so many chances in front of net, we may be talking about how we let a 3 goal lead evaporate from a win to a draw… or worse. I get what coach is saying about being aggressive leading to opposition goal chances, but we are talking about at least 4 blown goal chances for Nashville. Was all of that due to us being aggressive? Not sure. In any case, on to Montreal and hopefully playing a little cleaner.
understandably so, tho, for the yester game. no way to penetrate the Nash’s height (pro’ly the tallest average in the MLS lineup i guess?) through long balls, NYC had to choose ‘build up’ from the D to the wings pattern. exactly why Matt played short passes startups than long kicks, and indeed almost every long kick from the goal line never reached to Maxi, Santi, Hannes or KOT. Nash exactly knew it and played their line ‘high’ causing our D’s mistakes. (that’s what we did to RB in a couple games before tranquilizing Torkin’s attempt to long balls.) listen. MLS is a tight league & there’s no point deficit between a 5:0 or 4:3 game. glad seeing this team seems to keep the lead and glad seeing the team can f$%kin SCORE. what all really matters. big improvement that we’ve been waiting for is being able to score when should. if we can, no matter conceding. we simply need to do one or more to what we concede to get the point and move forward. no?
Yes that mostly makes sense to me. I guess the only part that concerns me is about simply needing to do one or more than what we concede; in this match, we almost didn’t do that. It’s not so much that we stiffened up and stopped Nashville, it’s more that Nashville blew multiple chances (shanking shot over the net and such). It could have been a 5-3 loss for us and we would be singing a different tune. But it wasn’t, and I’m happy about that and as you said, we are scoring now – that is great! Hopefully the team assesses what led to those Nashville chances and if there are things we can do to improve there, great. This season has been quite a ride. I think everything is proceeding according to a multiple year growth plan.
totally. lucky we have Freese & lucky he’s thriving this season. w/o him (that i often refer to as “individual excellence” than a collective effort)—let’s face it, we do yet have vulnerable D line—it’d have been a different tune 🙂 whatever it takes, whatever we can grab.