Nick Cushing believes his side must maintain their intensity when they entertain the San Jose Earthquakes on Friday.
New York City FC are currently enjoying fine form in MLS, with four wins from their last five league outings. That success has pushed the team into the top three in the Eastern Conference, with Cushing eager to maintain their positive run when they welcome the Earthquakes to Yankee Stadium on Friday.
“They’re a really good team,” Cushing said.
“I watched the game against Austin FC. When a team can put up an expected goals total of 3.5 that tells you how many chances they can create.
“If you look at the data across the league they are up there for expected and goal chances created – they’re a really good offensive team.
“They’re a really well-coached team. You look at the way that they play – Luchi Gonzalez has them playing really free-flowing football.
“In our league if you can put some results together your league position changes like this. We just have to make sure that we keep the intensity in the game, we keep our level and our standard high.”
The game will also be City’s last outing before the international break.
Finishing up this part of the calendar at Yankee Stadium in front of a potentially raucous home crowd, Cushing expressed his excitement about the potential atmosphere that awaits his team, as well as the chance to finish the month on a high.
“I love playing in front of our fans,” he said.
“I love playing at home. It is the last game before we get a bye week and an international break and it's Friday night under the lights.
“The Red Bull game was amazing because of the atmosphere, the crowd, the amount of fans we got in, and the way that we played.
“We just want to make sure that we deliver a performance every game that makes people want to come to the stadium. A performance that makes people excited and makes them want to make a noise and build an atmosphere.
“We encourage fans to be super noisy for us because it helps us. We want to keep adding wins. I'm excited and I want to make sure that we start the game in a way that makes us really work together – ourselves and the fans – and then go and get another win.”
