Nick Cushing is excited by the challenge that Club Tigres will pose them on Tuesday night.
New York City FC will face Tigres in the Leagues Cup Round of 16 on Tuesday night after overcoming the New England Revolution in their last outing. The game at Gillette stadium ultimately went to penalties with Justin Haak producing the matchwinner for City.
That set up a meeting with Tigres, a matchup that Cushing is excited for, but one he knows requires his side to be at their best.
“I’m really happy to be into the round of 16,” he said.
“We set a minimum standard for ourselves in this competition and that was to go one step further than last year. We've achieved that.
“Now the opportunity to go further in the competition is there. We know it's going to be a tough game.
"We know whoever you're going to play in the round of 16 - both teams are going to be hungry - but it's a good opportunity for us.
“Going up against difficult teams that have a huge desire to progress in the competition is exactly what our team needs. We want to go against the best teams, and we know this would be difficult, but it's a good opportunity.”
He later added: “I think when I look at Tigres I see an experienced team. I see a team with a lot of high-quality individuals.
“They're a good team. That's why they're in form and they've had good results in this competition.
“When we prepare for games, we always prepare against what we feel the threats will be.
“We've got to be our best. And we know that there are areas of our game that we want to focus on.
“It’s a tight turnaround in this competition. When you go through one game and then you go into the next game [a few days later].
“I've been really pleased with the recovery of the group and the way that the group has prepared for this one.”
Cushing also provided an update on the health of his roster after defender Birk Risa was forced off during the game against New England.
“No, we're completely healthy,” he said.
“Birk came out of the game [against New England]. He's had a little bit of foot pain over the last few weeks, and playing on turf, it aggravates that.
“He came out of the game, and it was also a quick turnaround Monday to Friday. We're fully healthy. All the guys trained this morning, and now we've got to pick a team out of those guys.
“I've said before the most difficult part of my job is picking a team because whoever we play, whenever we've played, those players that have come in have played well.
“But we do have a little bit of fatigue across the group, and we have played a lot of football over the last seven days, so we'll pick a team that has the form but has the freshness to go into the game.”
