New York City FC will go all out for the win as they open up their US Open Cup campaign on Wednesday night.
Those are the sentiments of Head Coach Patrick Vieira ahead of the club’s first visit to Red Bull Arena in 2017.
NYCFC have crashed out at the fourth round stage in each of their previous two entries into the nation’s oldest sporting ongoing soccer competition but the Frenchman wants more this year.
Vieira has no doubts that it’s going to be a tough ask but he’s determined to try to win for the fans who are hungry for silverware.
Patrick told NYCFC.com: “Our target is always to try to win our next game. Of course the next one is against the Red Bulls in the Cup.
“This is a competition we want to do well in, do well for the football club, do well for the fans.
“It’s going to be a tricky one but I believe we are in a good period at the moment, we’re playing some good football, and we’re going to go there with our philosophy and try to play our game.”
The New York Cosmos ended NYCFC’s hopes of going deep in US Open Cup in the past two years.
Now, a rivalry game will determine whether the boys in blue can break the streak and Vieira believes it will take mental resilience to go to Red Bull Arena and win for the first time ever.
“Against the Cosmos, most people were expecting us to win the game, and we didn’t,” he reflected. “I think this year we are going to take it in a different way.
“It will take a lot of personality, I think it will be important for us to go there and believe in ourselves and stick to our gameplan and play the way we know we can. The personality will be really important for us.”
NYCFC rotated heavily for last year’s Open Cup tie but Vieira has hinted we might see a more familiar lineup on Wednesday night.
He added: “We didn’t play for quite a while, have players coming back from injuries, and have most of our players available, so it’s going to be good to give some players time as well. So the mix, the balance of the team has to be good.”
