Head Coach Patrick Vieira has named an unchanged lineup to the one which faced Montreal Impact before the international break.
It will be the third time in a row that this exact XI will take to the Etihad Pitch together.
Ethan White retains his place at right-back behind Jack Harrison who lines up on the opposite wing to Rodney Wallace, who is looking to make it three consecutive goalscoring games at Yankee Stadium.
In midfield, it’s Alex Ring, Andrea Pirlo and Maxi Moralez who will look to create chances for David Villa up front.
Behind them, Maxime Chanot and Alexander Callens partner up in the center of defense, while Ronald Matarrita is picked at left-back in front of Sean Johnson in the NYCFC goal.
On the bench, Vieira has made a couple of alterations, swapping in John Stertzer and Khiry Shelton for Jonathan Lewis and Sean Okoli.
NYCFC XI: Johnson, White, Chanot, Callens, Matarrita, Pirlo, Ring, Moralez, Harrison, Wallace, Villa (C)
READ: How to follow NYCFC v San Jose Earthquakes
Key Stats
- This will be just the third meeting all-time between the two clubs. NYCFC earned a 3-2 home win and a scoreless 0-0 draw at San Jose in the first two games.
- Dating back to last season, NYCFC is 8W-0L-2D in their last 10 regular season games at Yankee Stadium, outscoring opponents 29-10 and keeping three clean sheets. They had kept three clean sheets in their previous 26 home games.
- San Jose has lost 12 of their last 20 away games (1W-7D), conceding an average of 1.8 goals per contest over those contests.
- Midfielder Alexander Ring has won 15 tackles this season, six more than any other NYCFC player. Only two MLS players have more entering this weekend.
- Defender Alexander Callens is completing 90.0% of his passes this season, the second-highest completion percentage of any MLS player who has attempted at least 200 passes.
- Chris Wondolowski scored against NYCFC in the 3-2 City victory on September 19th, 2015. Since the start of the 2010 MLS regular season, Wondolowski has scored against all 20 teams that he has made an appearance against.
- San Jose has faced only six shots on target so far this season, the fewest of any team in MLS.
- Anibal Godoy has 37 ball recoveries so far this year, tied for the second most of any MLS field player. Godoy already has two goals this year, matching his single season MLS high (he had two in 2015 and one in 2016).
- NYCFC had 26.7% shooting accuracy against Montreal in their last game, their lowest shooting accuracy over the course of their last eight regular season MLS games (only one other accuracy lower than 50%).
- Rodney Wallace has scored in back-to-back MLS games. He had only scored one goal in his previous 35 MLS appearances.
