Field Level Media - Professional sports content solutions | FLM

A fierce rivalry matchup looms Saturday for New York City FC against the New York Red Bulls. But first there’s business to attend to on Wednesday as NYCFC faces host D.C. United.

Both teams are coming off humbling defeats on Saturday to two of the bottom three teams in the Eastern Conference.

While New York City (5-5-2, 17 points) became the first MLS team this year to lose to last-place CF Montreal, falling 1-0 at home, D.C. United (3-6-3, 12 points) was listless in a 2-0 loss at Toronto FC, which sits in 13th place.

NYCFC is mired in an offensive drought, failing to score in two matches last week, including a 1-0 loss at the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in the U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday.

“We must avoid the arrogance to say ‘They are below us,'” NYCFC coach Pascal Jansen said of playing down to the recent competition. “The moment that we start to think that we’re really, really good, we can also be very vulnerable.”

Top threat Alonso Martinez (six goals), who was among several starters who did not make the trip to Pittsburgh, has not scored in his last two MLS matches despite taking 13 shots.

If there’s a club to break out of a scoring slump against, however, it’s D.C. United, who have surrendered more goals (25) than any team in the Eastern Conference.

D.C. compounded its defensive woes Saturday as back Lucas Bartlett scored an own goal. The tally spoiled a strong performance from D.C. United keeper Luis Barazza, who had eight saves.

D.C. has been more stingy since Barazza took over, yielding eight goals in five matches after rookie Kim Joon-Hong surrendered 17 goals in seven games.

Top D.C. scorer Christian Benteke (six goals) is in a slump, tallying just once over his last four matches and failing to cash in on 13 of 14 shots.

“We really left him on an island and that goes back to how the match plan was set up and I take full responsibility for that,” D.C. coach Troy Lesesne said of the tactics against Toronto.

–Field Level Media

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