New York City Interim Head Coach Nick Cushing says his squad will have to produce their best level of performance to lift the Campeones Cup.
The Boys in Blue host Atlas F.C. on Wednesday night, as the MLS Cup and Liga MX Champions lock horns at Yankee Stadium.
Cushing says his side are counting down the minutes to the clash, hoping to capitalize on home advantage and create more history for the Club.
With both sides heading into the game in difficult form, the Head Coach also believes a victory could spark the catalyst for an upturn in fortunes for the squad, but warns the players must be at the top of their game if they are to clinch a second piece of silverware.
“We’re excited for this game,” he told the press on Monday at a community event celebrating literacy in the Bronx. “It’s a great opportunity for us, being back at Yankee Stadium, in front of our home fans.
“We’ve planned for a difficult game but it’s a really exciting game for us because of the nature of what the game is: two teams who are the Champions of their respective leagues going head-to-head for a trophy.
“We know it’s going to be a really difficult game with really good opposition – irrelative of form, we’re up against a good side and have to be the best version of ourselves to win.
“My own personal experience, being here for one year, is that playing Liga MX teams are incredibly difficult games – the level across in Mexico is very high.
“We know it will be incredibly difficult – Atlas are a good team. People may perceive they’re not in form because of their results but it’s a one-off game so both teams will be motivated to take a trophy.
“We have a motivation ourselves to make sure we get back to winning football games. There’s also an element that we have a huge desire to put things right with our run of form.
“It’s a reset – a different competition, so a good opportunity to take our focus away from the league in this moment and play for a trophy we earned the opportunity last year to play for.
“The aim and expectation of this Football Club has always been to win trophies and with any opportunity to win trophies, we have a huge desire to make sure we do that.
“Tomorrow is no different – it’s a Final where we can be overall Champions of Mexico and the United States. We have a huge desire to make sure we win this trophy.”
New York have a huge week ahead with Wednesday’s Cup Final and Saturday’s Hudson River Derby – both of which Cushing asserts are equally crucial in reigniting the MLS Cup Champions’ season.
The squad have also received a major boost this week with key names back in contention ahead of a pivotal run of fixtures, with Thiago Martins, Maxime Chanot, Nico Acevedo and Keaton Parks all set to feature.
“For me, all games are incredibly important,” Cushing added. “We have the opportunity to field a really strong team and we will do that, and we will do that for the Red Bulls game – we haven’t prioritized either of the games.
“We’re really happy to be getting some really important guys back. We have some slight line-up issues, which we’ll have to correct on Matchday -1 looking forward to the Red Bulls game but both games are as important as each other.
“We have the opportunity to get a win in a period where we haven't won games (even though we feel we should have got more points and have played well enough to get more points), and this can be a catalyst for us going into the Red Bulls Derby and into the end of the season.”
