Thursday night brings us football instead of the usual baseball action from the Yankees Stadium as 6th placed New York City prepare for the visit of bottom club, Cincinnati, in an all-Eastern Conference clash.
New York City will no doubt be relieved to be returning to more familiar surroundings following a gruelling but successful four-match road trip which saw them gain back-to-back wins at Montreal Impact and LA Galaxy, both by 2-0 margins, along with draws at Chicago Fire and Columbus Crew.
With that four-match unbeaten run on their travels, this has extended New York City’s unbeaten sequence to 9 matches overall in the MLS, but they’ll be keen to grab all three points on Thursday night in order to cement their place in the top seven of the Eastern Conference.
The hosts occupy 6th place but hold just a two point margin above Toronto, Orlando City and Chicago Fire, so there’s plenty of incentive for New York to do the business here.
The visit of Cincinnati also represents a golden opportunity for New York City to register another home win as they’ve managed just 1 from their first five home games to date, along with 4 draws.
Cincinnati sit bottom of the Eastern Conference and they face a tough road trip to New York this Thursday night to face New York City who still remain unbeaten at home, while Cincinnati will be looking to avoid a fourth defeat on the trot in the MLS.
Cincinnati have lost their last 3 matches on the trot which includes defeats to Orlando City 5-1, New York Red Bulls 2-0 and a 3-1 loss at Colorado Rapids, and indeed, the visitors have lost 9 of their last 11 matches overall, so confidence isn’t likely to be high ahead of their clash with New York City.
The story gets worse for Cincinnati when you turn to their results away from home as the visitors have lost 7 of their first 9 away matches this season to date, and this includes losing their last 6 away matches on the trot as well.
Cincinnati possess the second lowest goalscoring tally and the second worst defensive record away from home in the Eastern Conference and these records look set to receive further damage on Thursday night, with New York City in good shape to take the points in this clash.