New York City FC hopes to right the ship as the Club hosts the Houston Dynamo on Saturday evening.
Kickoff is 7 p.m. EDT from Yankee Stadium. The match will be broadcast on YES Network, 970 AM and WADO.
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New York City FC comes into the match at 1-7-4 (7 points) following a 2-0 defeat at Real Salt Lake on May 23. The visiting Dynamo are 4-5-4 (16 points) after a 1-0 loss at the Los Angeles Galaxy on May 22.
The two sides met in the preseason as part of the Carolina Challenge Cup – Houston won 2-1 – but defender Jason Hernandez isn’t putting much stock, if any, in that result from late February.
“Preseason seems like a lifetime ago,” he said. “Most MLS teams don’t look the same and some don’t even play the same. We’ll concentrate on their last couple of performances and try to understand how they’ll come in here and play. We’ll do our best to try to limit their chances and come away with three points.”
Houston has had an up-and-down season to this point under first-year manager Owen Coyle. The Dynamo were 1-1-1 through the first three weeks and 2-2-2 through Week 6. They then had consecutive draws, losses and wins before suffering a late defeat to the reigning MLS Champions.
“It’s almost two teams still trying to find themselves,” New York City FC assistant coach CJ Brown said. “Us, obviously being new and with them it’s new coaches and a new system.”
Forward Giles Barnes leads the Dynamo with six goals – he had 11 in 2014 – while Will Bruin has found the back of the net four times.
Brad Davis, who was part of the United States Men’s National Team squad for the 2014 World Cup along with New York City FC midfielder Mix Diskerud, is the Houston’s provider in midfield with a team-high four assists. He had a goal and an assist when the two sides met during the preseason.
New York City FC strives to continue to battle hard and improve on a weekly basis. The coaches and players know if that remains, the results will follow suit.
“We need to finally put a full, solid 90 minutes together,” Brown said. “We’ve shown spurts of some good soccer and spurts of hard work and commitment, but you need that throughout the 90 minutes.”
“When things aren’t going well, what kind of men do we have and what kind of a team do we have to continue battling, fighting and representing our city and Club the best way we can?” Hernandez said. “I think that’s when people show their true colors and we have a lot of fighters here who give it their all. We’re going to come to a tipping point where some good things are going to start to happen. Hopefully that starts this weekend."
