Alex Ring shrugged off news that he’d earned a spot in the MLS Team of the Week.
For the Finland international midfielder, the three points taken against Atlanta United in the 3-1 win were all that mattered.
NYCFC lie in third place in the Eastern Conference going into Sunday’s showdown with FC Dallas and Alex is channeling his energies into stringing together three consecutive wins for the first time in 2017.
Ring told NYCFC.com: “I don’t really care about that stuff – I was happy with the team and the team made me look better in the game. It’s a nice credential but it doesn’t mean much to me. I would rather win MLS Cup and never once be in Team of the Week.”
Both Ring and Rodney Wallace earned spots in the best XI of the week, much to their manager’s pleasure but Vieira too feels as though it’s all about the collective performance.
“It’s good for them and for the club but all credit to the team because Rodney and Alex had really good games,” Vieira reflected.
“When the team players well, it’s easy for the individual talents to show what they can do.”
NYCFC’s road form has been good of late, with Patrick Vieira’s side defeating Philadelphia and Columbus Crew SC, but now they face perhaps their toughest challenge yet.
FC Dallas are top of the Western Conference with a 5-0-3 record through eight games and so Ring knows that it will be a tough assignment.
The trip to Texas is the start of a three-game run of road games and Alex wants to stay in the winning habit.
“We’ll look into Dallas this week – we have three important games coming up away,” he said.
“We’ve won two in a row and now we have to continue on that path.
“We want to go for the three straight wins – the expectation on ourselves is that we’ll do everything we can to get the points. We’re in a good place now with the team and we should continue on winning ways.”
