Nick Cushing is choosing not to focus on his side's potential opponent in the next round of Leagues Cup ahead of tomorrow's game against FC Cincinnati.
New York City FC secured their place in the next round of the competition earlier this week and will complete their schedule of games on Monday when they take on FC Cincinnati at TQL Stadium.
The top spot in the group is still up for grabs and City are unlikely to know their opponent in the next round until later in the week. Speaking to the media on Sunday afternoon, Cushing preferred to focus his attention on the game at TQL Stadium and asserted his desire to pick up a victory against Pat Noonan’s side.
“There are obviously implications from finishing first or finishing second,” Cushing said.
“I think for us, it’s a great opportunity to tackle a road game. We had a good period of road form earlier in the season. Lately, we've tied a lot of games on the road and not won.
“Whether it's a regular season game, it's a playoff game, or it's a knockout game in League's Cup, we have to approach it to make sure that we do everything we can to win it.”
City booked their place in the next round of the tournament after securing a bonus point against Club Querétaro with goalkeeper Luis Barraza the star of the show that night.
Asked whether he may make further changes to the lineup for the game against FC Cincinnati, Cushing discussed his willingness to call upon his full roster as they pursue silverware in the 2024 edition of Leagues Cup.
“I think you see across all of the teams there's been a lot of rotation,” Cushing said.
“I can only speak about my squad and trust everybody in this group. There isn’t one person I would pick or that I wouldn’t trust.
“I take this competition tremendously seriously and want to win every game. We'll go strong tomorrow in the sense of picking a team that I believe will give us the best chance of winning.
“We will play to win every game. We will play to improve the team and consistently try and improve our consistency of results.”
“There are certain implications in terms of who I'll pick based off the knockout games may be on different days and there are implications to who I can pick because of the tight turnaround in the travel versus home games.”
Cushing was also able to provide an update on his roster’s availability heading into Monday’s game.
Several players missed City’s opening game at Yankee Stadium, but Cushing took time out to praise his medical team for turning around several players in quick time.
“Santi [Rodríguez] was illness and he's fine,” Cushing said.
“He has completely recovered. Hannes [Wolf] and Keaton [Parks] are with the group. Although we had some injuries over the period across Atlanta, Orlando, and going into the Querétaro game I think the medical team did a really good job of turning those around quickly.
“They're not ideal and we have to make sure that as we advance through this competition and we go back into the MLS season that we cut out those small injuries.
“The medical team did a really good job of turning those guys around. Those guys are fully healthy. Santi is back with the group. Tayvon is back with the group. Kevin's back with the group.
“We’ve got a really strong roster to pick from for tomorrow.”
