Patrick Vieira has called for concentration and game intelligence in the lead up to Saturday’s early kickoff against Philadelphia Union.
Jim Curtin’s men arrive at Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon looking to continue an impressive run of five wins in six games against an NYCFC side with one in three.
The two teams met six weeks ago in Philadelphia when the boys in blue earned a deserved three points thanks to a dominant display.
However, Vieira believes that this Union side are a different proposition because of their recent run of form.
Vieira told NYCFC.com: “I think it will take a lot of concentration – this is a completely different team to the one we faced in Philly.
“They have a lot more confidence than they used to have – they managed to win five of their last six games.
“They are playing well, they are in a good period, so we have to concentrate and focus because we don’t want to give them chances or opportunities to score goals. We have to be smart and concentrate from the start to the end.”
Patrick was disappointed that his team failed to take all three points from Wednesday night’s game against New England Revolution.
Despite taking the lead on two occasions, NYCFC were pegged back twice and could only draw 2-2.
With a ten-day pause from games coming up, Vieira wants to make sure his players go into the international break on the back of a positive result.
“It’s always good to be at home – we’ve been away for a few games and that was a big challenge,” Vieira reflected.
“We always want to be back and to be playing in front of our fans and it’s going to be a tough game for us, especially knowing that we didn’t get the result we wanted against New England. “It will be important for us to try to win the game because when you look at the last five matches we played, it will be important for us before the break.
“It will also be important for us to be really smart in the way we approach it because it will be 90 minutes and it will be a long 90 minutes for us.”
