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Game Recap — New York City FC

Electric first half powers NYCFC past Nashville SC for third straight win

Three first-half goals were enough for New York City to beat Nashville SC and earn their third consecutive win at Red Bull Arena.

,   and  Matthew Mangam
5 min read
Justin Haak had himself a game | © John Jones-Imagn Images

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.

GAME STATS

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.

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.

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.

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.

Courtesy g+ GameFlow

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.

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."

With that being said, expect NYCFC's lack of clean sheets to continue in the playoffs and beyond with Cushing at the helm.

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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.

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Discipline
• 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

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