Injuries and lineup rotation looked to put New York City FC at a disadvantage heading into their meeting with Atlanta United at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Can any team in Major League Soccer expect to win on the road playing without five regular members of their Starting XI, and with the two players most used as substitutes also unavailable?
That was the reality NYCFC faced in Atlanta. James Sands was out on a yellow card accumulation suspension, Thiago Martins and Santi Rodríguez were left out of the matchday squad entirely, and the group of Andrés Perea, Tayon Gray, Kevin O'Toole, and Malachi Jones remained out injured.
Early on, it looked like the shortened New York City roster, which needed to be fortified by a trio of short-term call-ups from the II team in MLS NEXT Pro, was heading for a loss, behind a goal after one minute and behind by two goals after the first 45 minutes.
Instead, Nick Cushing's team salvaged a drama-filled 2-2 draw, with the drama mainly involving Talles Magno and his central role in the spirited second-half comeback, drawing the penalty and converting from the spot to secure the result.
The off-field Talles saga has been well-chronicled and has been unfolding for weeks now, but he finally saw his first minutes since a brief substitute appearance on Matchday 1, and he made them count.
Some wondered if he would never play for NYCFC again, but that never lined up with what Cushing and Sporting Director David Lee said about Talles and his status with the team, with both reiterating the Brazilian was still a part of the squad and still in the team's plans.
Andrew Leigh
Cushing and Lee have also both spoken positively of the depth now present in the New York City squad they oversee, and this game in Atlanta was a maximum-strength test of the depth.
Yet most teams in MLS are also not in positions to bring players like Maxi Moralez, Talles Magno, and Jovan Mijatović off their benches when their benches are reduced drastically by extenuating circumstances. That's where the newfound depth really benefits NYCFC.
Even while supremely shorthanded and playing on what was an off night for attacking players like Agustín Ojeda and Hannes Wolf, the bench had solutions, and the types of solutions not many other teams in MLS can turn to.
This game in Atlanta looked like it was going to be an example of New York City being forced to pay what I'll call the "MLS Tax," suffering through a poor result while severely undermanned, asked to play without a handful of absolutely crucial players. A lot of other teams in the league paid their MLS Taxes while missing key contributors during the just-finished Euros or Copa América tournaments.
NYCFC ran into teams in just those kinds of circumstances recently, like Orlando City and CF Montréal, and benefited from their shorthandedness. Atlanta, which are at their lowest point in years after firing their coach and selling off their two best players, looked like they were going to perform the same trick on a fragile New York City side.
Instead, by finally turning back to Talles and getting an inspired first performance since February from him, and by having the ability to rely on Maxi Moralez to pull the strings from the midfield for 45 minutes as a sub while he's still getting back to fitness following an injury, New York City avoided a fate that seemed inevitable in the early going at The Benz.
It helps that this Atlanta team was low on confidence and playing in front of one of its smallest home crowds, possibly ever? They seemed to crumble once New York City ratcheted up the pressure on them in the second half, which happened when Nick Cushing turned to his long-overlooked Brazilian Designated Player.
This comeback showed the value that can be added even by the fringiest members of the 2024 roster, though it's still a strange reality that two hyped-up young players who each cost over $8 million to acquire have both been the ones at the furthest fringes of the roster for most of this season.
Hudson River Blue Staff
