It's the Leagues Cup knockouts and New York City FC is in Foxborough, MA to face New England Revolution in the Round of 32. Here is your NYCFC vs. New England game preview.
• Leagues Cup Round of 32: New England Revolution vs New York City FC
• Date and Time: Friday, August 9, 7:40 pm ET
• Venue: Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA
• Forecast: Warm, humid, showers late 77F/25C
• Watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
• Apple Broadcast Team: Chris Wittyngham and Lori Lindsey (English), Alejandro Figueredo and Diego Tabares (Spanish)
• New York City FC Radio: Chis Tsakonas and Matty Lawrence (English), Roberto Abramowitz and Ariel Judas (Spanish)
• Officiating Crew: Julio Luna (referee), Juan Tipaz and Cristian Alvarado (assistant referees), Walter Lopez Castellanos (fourth official)
The Revs have yet to leave Gillette Stadium during Leagues Cup, this meeting with New York City their third straight tournament home match. Neither team has been in good recent form across MLS and the start of Leagues Cup, with New York City winless in six straight (0 W-4 D-2 L) and New England not much better with one win in its last six (1 W-2 D-3 L).
New England won its group with five points, earning a 1-0 regulation win over Mazatlán FC on July 27 and a 1-1 draw (with a bonus point to the Revs for winning the shootout) with Nashville SC on August 6.
New York City is playing a second straight road game, looking to recover after completely falling apart and blowing a 2-0 lead in the final minutes of an ugly 4-2 away loss to FC Cincinnati.
A New York City victory would make it three wins over New England in 2024 while also taking Nick Cushing's team one round further than it got in last season's Leagues Cup.
Winning in Foxborough would also confirm a Round of 16 meeting between New York City and Tigres UANL at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey on the night of Tuesday, August 13.
New York City vs New England H2H
| GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | 10 | 7 | 10 | 34 | 34 | 0 |
The head-to-head between the two clubs is dead even after New York City's 2-0 win at Yankee Stadium in April and 0-1 win at Gillette Stadium in May.
This will be just the third time these teams meet outside of regular season league play. New York City came out on top in both of those previous games, beating New England in penalty kicks in the 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs semifinal at Gillette Stadium on November 30, 2021, and 1-0 in the US Open Cup Round of 16 on May 25, 2022. Both of those games went to extra time.
New York City FC
• Player Availability: Malachi Jones is out recovering from his leg injury. Andrés Perea has also been out of action since suffering a leg injury on July 13 in Chicago.
• What kind of lineup will we see from Nick Cushing? Hannes Wolf and Keaton Parks have yet to start in either Leagues Cup game, while Maxi Moralez has played every single minute across the Querétaro and Cincinnati games. Maxi has done his part: His 10 key passes are tied for the most to date in this year's Leagues Cup.
• Making his first start since May 31, Jovan Mijatović picked up his first New York City goal in Cincinnati. Does that buy him a second consecutive start, and another chance to get in a run of goal-scoring form, at Gillette?
• You won't see Talles Magno in New England. He wasn't in the matchday squad in Cincinnati (though Nick Cushing claims that was due to an injury) and was seen arriving in Brazil with lots of luggage while telling local media he's "happy and motivated" as he, his agent, and the involved teams work to finalize his move to Corinthians.
Andrew Leigh
New England
• Player Availability: Carles Gil (leg), Giacomo Vrioni (calf), Dylan Borrero (hip), Nacho Gil (knee), Noel Buck (hip), and Tomas Chancalay (knee) are all out.
• The long list of injuries hasn't helped, but New England is tied with Nashville for the lowest goals per 90 minutes number (1.00) in MLS league play this season, a rate that has carried over in Leagues Cup, where the Revs have scored one goal in each of their two matches. New England has conceded 2.04 goals per 90 in MLS games this year, the second-worst number behind San Jose's 2.40.
• There's been some notable player movement in New England since the last meeting with New York City. Fullback DeJuan Jones was traded to Columbus Crew in exchange for defender Will Sands, the former NYCFC Academy player and brother of James. The Revs also swapped center-backs with St. Louis City SC, New England parting with Henry Kessler in exchange for MLS veteran Tim Parker.
• Young players like Peyton Miller, Esmir Bajraktarević (who might miss this game due to injury), and Jack Panayotou have been asked to step up amid the injury pile-up, and you can learn more about what they have shown and everything else that's been going on with New England from Jake Catanese of The Blazing Musket in our latest Oppo Research all about the Revolution.
Matthew Mangam
