The road games keep on coming.
Following the 1-1 draw at FC Dallas, NYCFC arrived in Salt Lake City on Monday focused on the task of picking up three more points on the road.
Unbeaten in four games, Head Coach Patrick Vieira is expected to shuffle his pack for this game which is sandwiched between that tie in Texas and a second trip to Orlando City Stadium.
However, the Frenchman has said that no decision has been taken on an XI for this match at the Rio Tinto Stadium and he’s promised to pick a team that he believes can win the game.
Vieira told NYCFC.com: “I didn’t make a decision on the team yet but it’s important for us to put out a strong team that will try to win the game as it’s not an easy place to go to.
“They are of course in a difficult period but they have a good side and I’m not sure on the injuries they might get back for this game. I will put out a team that will compete and of course try to win the game.”
Because of the travel, the team will not get much time to work on grass ahead of this 11th game of the season but there are other ways to prepare and sharpen focus for games.
Vieira will use the time before Wednesday night’s kickoff to prepare the team mentally, studying the opposition to try to uncover points of weakness to exploit.
“This is our second game away from home and after the first one against Dallas I strongly believe that we got a really positive point,” he reflected.
“We time we need to recover because of the travelling – we don’t have so much time to work on the field but we will spend a lot of time in the video room and talk about what we want to get out of the game against Real Salt Lake.”
NYCFC have never beaten RSL in two attempts, going down 5-2 on aggregate across the two meetings.
Despite the fact that Wednesday’s hosts have endured a difficult start to 2017, Vieira is taking nothing for granted.
Patrick added: “They’ve been unlucky – they’ve had a lot of injuries, a lot of players who maybe haven’t played at their best but when you look at their roster, they have quality players.
“They have individuals they’ve got pace and power. We need to be at our best if we want to take something from the game.”
