New York City FC are back to Yankee Stadium for their match against the Montreal Impact on Saturday night.
Here’s the Keys to the Match, presented by Tri-State Ford…
Comeback City
Coming off a couple of busy three-game weeks, the Boys in Blue had a rare full week of training to recover from last weekend’s match in Columbus before their match with the Montreal Impact back at home on Saturday.
NYCFC fell to Columbus on the road with their only score from Taty Castellanos off a corner from Maxi Moralez in the second half. With the end of the regular season in sight, Ronny Deila and the team are looking to get back on their hot streak to warm up for the Playoffs.
Ronny Deila spoke to the press about how the team plans to work around injuries and yellow card suspensions touching on the return of Justin Haak.
Deila said: "I think we are are going to put out a good team. We also get Justin again so he can be back on the squad. That also gives us another player and now we are looking forward to getting started again."
Not giving away his game plan when asked who will fill in for Chanot, Deila said, "We'll see, I don't want to say that now, but we have different solutions."
Shift in the Lineup
The return of Maxi Moralez on Sunday brought City some confidence and the little magician impressed as he took the pitch for the final half an hour vs. Columbus.
However, yellow card accumulations see Maxime Chanot and Taty Castellanos suspended for the match against Montreal. Adding to Ronny Deila’s dilemmas, injuries for James Sands, Héber, Tayvon Gray, and Gedion Zelalem and so a shift is expected for the starting XI this weekend.
As the season comes to a close with only four matches left of the regular season, Ronny Deila will be looking to his full squad for the answers to Saturday’s match vs. Thierry Henry’s side.
Montreal Form
The Montreal Impact won their last match 2-1 against Inter Miami FC on Saturday night rebounding from their two consecutive defeats.
On Monday, Montreal announced that winger Lassi Lappalainen will miss the remainder of the season as he undergoes shoulder surgery after sustaining an injury in their match against Columbus Crew SC.
Currently, Montreal hold a record of 7W-2D-10L with 23 points ranking them in the 9th position of the Eastern Conference. With an eight-point difference between the teams, a win for Henry’s men would put them in position to potentially get in the hunt for a strong playoffs qualifying seed.
H2H
The teams last met in 2019 where NYCFC defeated Montreal 2-0 at Saputo Stadium. Maxi Moralez and Ismael Tajouri-Shradi locked in goals for the Boys in Blue to earn the win.
As they enter Saturday’s match, City is looking to put their three-match winless streak behind them and secure the win. This could allow them the advantage over New England putting them back in the 5th position of the Eastern Conference where they could bypass the play-in game.
Looking Ahead
Tune in YES Network for the pregame show at 7:00PM ET with Joe Tolleson and Ian Joy as they countdown to kickoff at 7:30PM ET. For commentary in English and Spanish check out NYCFC.com/Radio.
Following their match against Montreal, New York City FC will take on another Canadian team in the form of Toronto FC, for their third matchup this season on Wednesday night.
