New York City FC Head Coach Patrick Vieira has made four changes to his lineup for the visit of New England Revolution.
With both Alex Ring and Ethan White out suspended for yellow card accumulation, RJ Allen and Mikey Lopez come into the side, along with Maxi Moralez and Rodney Wallace.
The quartet replace Ring, White, Jonathan Lewis and Tommy McNamara as Vieira opts to shuffle his pack for this Yankee Stadium showdown.
Allen joins the defense along with Frederic Brillant, Alexander Callens and Ben Sweat in front of last week’s Man of the Match Sean Johnson, while Lopez is set to anchor midfield behind Moralez and Yangel Herrera.
Wallace returns to the left flank on the opposite side to Jack Harrison, while David Villa will aim to add to his 18 Regular Season goals from his position leading the line.
NYCFC can move to within four points of Toronto with a third-successive victory and put five points between themselves and third place Chicago Fire.
New England arrive in the Bronx on the back of three wins in their last four games as they seek to improve their tenth place in the standings and edge back into Playoffs contention.
NYCFC XI: Johnson, Allen, Brillant, Callens, Sweat, Lopez, Herrera, Moralez, Harrison, Wallace, Villa
NYCFC Subs: Johansen, Awuah, Pirlo, Lewis, McNamara, Shelton, Okoli
READ: Major Keys to NYCFC vs. New England
Key Stats
- NYCFC have only beaten the Revolution twice in seven league matches (3L-2D). A loss to New England would give the Revs the third-most league wins against NYCFC of any team (New York and Orlando each have five wins).
- NYCFC’s 2-0 win over LA last weekend was their 12th away win under Patrick Vieira, the most of any team in the league since the start of the 2016 season.
- The Revs are winless in their last 13 road league games (10L-3D), which ties a franchise record, also hit between April 5 and October 6, 2012.
- Yangel Herrera’s assist against LA last weekend was just his second in 13 MLS appearances, and his first since April.
- Teal Bunbury has four goals in his last five MLS appearances after scoring zero times in his first 12 league games of this season.
- The Revolution have scored 12 headed goals this year, tied with Seattle for the most of any team in the league.
- NYCFC have won 80% of the 10 games Yangel Herrera has started (2.5 points per game), and 35.7% of the 14 games he has not started (1.3 points per game).
- NYCFC have scored 13 goals in the middle portion of second halves this year (61st-75th minutes), the second- most goals any MLS team has scored in any 15-minute section of matches this year. The Revs have conceded six goals so far during that part of matches.
- Alexander Callens is fifth in MLS with 57 interceptions this season. Lee Nguyen has 199 key passes since the start of 2015, the third most of any MLS player in that time span.
