It's hard to get a handle on this team right now.
New York City FC's winless streak continued on Friday night, when they drew the New England Revolution 1-1 in regulation — the last time the team won was on July 3, eight games ago. And yet New York City advanced to the Round of 16 in the Leagues Cup tournament after prevailing in the penalty kick shootout — they're finding a way to get it done.
True, it was against a short-handed Revolution on a night when the VAR gods were smiling on NYCFC. But then again, they did on the road and in the rain, and kept their cool after giving up an equalizer just five minutes after taking the lead.
Hudson River Blue Staff
Your ratings reflect these mixed feelings, with mostly 5s and 6s – plus a couple of 7s for the usual standouts – for a squad that probably should've won the game outright, but still managed to advance.
Notably, you gave Head Coach Nick Cushing a 6.1, his highest rating since that July 3 win over CF Montréal. Cushing opened the game with a strong Starting XI, and he went on to make aggressive substitutes to try to grab the win: Your score reflects that he took this game seriously. His is the biggest improvement over last week's 4-2 collapse to FC Cincinnati, when you were unimpressed with the entire squad — and gave Cushing a dismal 2.1.
It's not easy to bounce back from a collapse like that one. But that's exactly what this team did.
In other words, the vibes are solid. Which is all you can ask for going into tomorrow night's matchup against Tigres UANL at Red Bull Arena.
Note: FotMob ratings are in parentheses.
Jovan Mijatović, off 65' (6.8) – 5.2
Santiago Rodríguez (8.4) – 7.8
Hannes Wolf, off 58' (6.5) – 5.9
Agustín Ojeda, off 74' (6.8) – 5.8
Keaton Parks, off 58' (6.7) – 5.7
James Sands (6.6) – 6.7
Christian McFarlane (7.2) – 6.6
Tayvon Gray (6.7) – 6.4
Thiago Martins (7.0) – 6.6
Birk Risa, off 81' (6.5) – 5.3
Matt Freese (6.0) – 7.0
