New York City FC Head Coach Domènec Torrent has made five changes to his lineup for tonight's game at Minnesota United.
Eloi Amagat, Jo Inge Berget, Alexander Callens, Valentin Castellanos and Sebastien Ibeagha all return to the XI in place of Maxime Chanot, Ronald Matarritra, Maxi Moralez, James Sands and David Villa.
Following the 2-0 win over Chicago Fire on Wednesday and the 1-1 tie with Montreal last weekend, City's MLS Playoffs spot is clinched but a victory tonight would secure at least a home Knockout Round match in the post season.
For City's penultimate Regular Season road test, there's a fairly familiar-looking back five of Sean Johnson, Callens, Ibeagha and Anton Tinnerholm, with Alex Ring and Ebenezer retained at the base of midfield from midweek.
Amagat returns to the midfield behind a front three of Berget, Castellanos and Tajouri-Shradi.
TCF Stadium hosts this 8pm ET kick-off which will be shown live on YES Network and broadcasted at NYCFC.com/Radio.
NYCFC: Johnson, Tinnerholm, Callens, Ibeagha, Sweat, Ofori, Ring, Amagat, Castellanos, Tajouri-Shradi, Berget
Subs: Stuver, Matarrita, Awuah, Sands, McNamara, Wallace, Medina
KEY STATS
- New York City won the only previous MLS matchup between the two sides – 3-1 at Yankee Stadium in June 2017.
- Minnesota’s 3-2 win over Portland snapped a seven-game winless run in league play. They averaged just 1.0 goals per game in that time.
- NYCFC snapped a six-game winless run (3L-3D) with their 2-0 win over Chicago on Wednesday. The Cityzens failed to score multiple goals once during their winless run.
- Minnesota has won just one penalty this season. Since 2010, only nine teams have finished a MLS campaign with one-or-fewer penalties won.
- 54% of New York City FC’s goals have been left-footed. No other team has scored more than 46% of their goals with the left foot.
- Minnesota United has conceded 32 goals in the second half of games this season, the fifth most of any club. NYCFC has conceded 39 total goals in league play in 2018.
- Maxi Moralez is the seventh player since 2010 to create 100+ chances in a single season.
- 10 of Darwin Quintero’s 12 assists this season have come since July 1st. Only five other players have tallied more than seven assists in that time.
- Wednesday was Maxime Chanot’s third game this season with 10+ clearances. Only three players have more such games.
- Ramus Schüller is winning 3.8 tackles per 90 this season. Only two other players are averaging more than 3.0 (min. 1,000 minutes played.
