New York City FC continues their MLS is Back Tournament run with a quarterfinals matchup vs. the Portland Timbers on Saturday night at 10:30PM ET (FS1 / TUDN / NYCFC.com/Radio).
Anton Tinnerholm is a big reason why that’s the case, after the Swede set up the first goal vs. Toronto FC and set the tone for an aggressive, dominant performance from NYCFC.
Appearing on the upcoming episode of NYCFC at Home with The Cooligans presented by El Jimador, Anton told hosts Alexis Guerreros and Christian Polanco he feels that the Boys in Blue have turned a corner.
Tinnerholm said: “After the game against Orlando, we all thought that we might be going home. We needed a lot of results but in the end we got it and now we’re here in the quarterfinals with a big chance to go all the way. This is soccer, you never know what it’s going to happen.
“You can talk so much about tactics and everything but when you go into a game, you never really know what’s going to happen. When we went into the game vs. Toronto we had a good feeling after Miami.
“That felt like a turnaround - last season we had a game vs. DC which felt like a turnaround. From here, we feel like we’re going to be a hard team to beat and we went out there and we felt like Toronto didn’t like to face us and that felt good. I think that’s the best game from us this season so far.”
Looking ahead to the upcoming test against a tough side in Portland, Tinnerholm believes that we can expect more of the aggressive City we saw in the Round of 16.
Anton added: “It’s going to be good. I saw their game vs FCC, it was a tight one and it could have gone either way - it’s just going to be fun to play a quarterfinal and now we feel like we’re in good shape and we’re going to go out and dominate the game.
“I’m just going to go out there and be as annoying as I can be, so that’s the plan.”
Saturday's victors will face the winners of Philadelphia Union vs. Sporting Kansas City (ESPN / Deportes) in the MLS is Back Tournament semifinals on Wednesday, August 5.
Check out the whole interview with Anton in the premiere of a new “NYCFC at Home with The Cooligans” at YouTube.com/nycfcofficial on Friday at 1pm ET.
