The New England Revolution seek to climb the Eastern Conference standings further while host New York City FC look to break a six-week Major League Soccer win drought when the teams meet on Wednesday night.
New England (11-8-4, 37 points) is coming off a 2-1 loss on the road against the Los Angeles Galaxy last Saturday. But the Revolution are in fourth place in the East and within striking distance of the Chicago Fire for third, with second-place Inter Miami only six points ahead of New England.
NYCFC (7-8-8, 29 points) desperately need a win as they enter on a six-match winless streak in league play and three consecutive draws. One of those draws came against the Revolution as the teams dueled to a 1-1 stalemate on Aug. 23 at New England.
New York City has not won a league match since beating Chicago 3-1 on July 25.
New England had a three-match unbeaten streak snapped by that loss in L.A., which didn’t sit well with coach Marko Mitrovic.
New England dominated the match on the stat sheet with a 25-7 shot advantage, but would have been blanked had it not been for a penalty-kick goal in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time by Carles Gil.
“I would say the most important thing is that we found our success in a way that we can create and generate so many situations on the field,” Mitrovic said. “We just have to keep going. It doesn’t matter what the score is in that moment. We just have to take the most out of every action on the field.”
New York City dueled MLS leader Nashville to a scoreless draw in its most recent match last Friday.
NYCFC sit in seventh place, but only two points ahead of the 10th-place New York Red Bulls, the first team out if the season had already ended.
“We were in very good positions in previous games and still gave it away,” NYCFC coach Pascal Jansen said. “You have two, three moments in this game to get yourself on the scoreboard, so you think there’s more in it, and you forget what it is in the final stage of the game to make sure you don’t concede as well.”
–Field Level Media
