New York City Football Club Interim Head Coach Nick Cushing has reiterated his side must continue to work hard defensively as they prepare for the visit of Inter Miami CF.
The Boys in Blue welcome Inter Miami to Yankee Stadium on Saturday night as they aim to stretch their unbeaten streak to five consecutive games alongside back-to-back clean sheets. The visitors are themselves entering the game off the back of an MLS win against Charlotte FC, and Cushing was keen to stress they cannot be taken lightly.
“Phil Neville is an excellent coach and has coached that team incredibly well,” Cushing said. “If you look at the transformation in results and how they are really pushing to get into the playoffs. They have a really good mix of hard work, organization, and real flair in the likes of Gonzalo Higuain and now Alejandro Pozuelo. We need to make sure that we play our football and we play our game and. We focus on ourselves always and we focus on our game and how our game can exploit all the different opposition teams and all the different styles in this league.
“We need to continue to work at being solid and not allowing teams to create chances on us. We know they're going to be dangerous, but the nature of the league is that it’s super competitive every week. You are really pushed and really tested. We know and respect them and we know they're a good team, but we know on our day at Yankee Stadium we can get a result.”
Saturday’s clash will also see the team return to Yankee Stadium after a pair of important road games against FC Dallas and Red Bulls. While both games produced wins for NYCFC, Cushing is looking forward to being back in familiar surroundings as they look to inspire the home crowd to a raucous atmosphere.
“I've said before we love playing in front of our home fans,” Cushing explained. “We love playing at Yankee Stadium and we love to get that atmosphere up. We know that we don't get that if we don't play well and we don't play football. We were disappointed not to get the three points against Colorado Rapids. We were disappointed not to get three points in the Atlanta United game.
“We were pleased with New England and we need to make sure that we start to win consistently at Yankee Stadium again. That starts with us getting the ball on the grass and getting some tempo to our play and create some chances and play some exciting football so that we can get the crowd making noise.”
