Santiago Rodriguez looks for position on Saturday night. @NYCFC.
New York City Football Club was shutout, 2-0, by CF Montreal in their regular season finale on Saturday night.
NYCFC finishes the season with a record of 14-8-12, with 50 points, in sixth place in the MLS Eastern Conference.
In the MLS Cup Playoffs Round One Best-of-3 series, NYCFC will play FC Cincinnati, who came in third place with 59 points and a record of 18-5-11.
The first match will be played in Cincinnati on Monday, October 28 at 6:45, while the second match will be hosted by NYCFC on Saturday, November 2, time and location to be determined (likely Citi Field now that the Mets' postseason run ended), and the third game will be in Cincinnati on Saturday, November 9 at 4:00 p.m.
Montreal took the lead in the 18th minute when Caden Clark buried a shot from the center of the box, with assists from Bryce Duke and Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty.
Then, in extra time of the first half, 46th minute, Josef Martinez, on a feed from Clark, drilled one from the top of the box to give them a 2-0 edge heading into the break.
Jonathan Sirois earned the shutout for Montreal, as he turned away NYCFC's three shots on goal. NYCFC poured in 15 shots overall, while Montreal only had five, with four on target.
COACH'S COMMENTS: NYCFC Head Coach Nick Cushing addressed the media after the game:
On how to correct things on the road before heading into Cincinnati for the playoffs: "We'll look at many games. At the start of the season, we probably weren't performing at the level to get results on the road. Through the season, we're much improved. We've not only improved our away from from last year because it wasn't good enough last year, but there are many performances that we probably should have tied when we've lost, and we should have won when we tied. For us, it's about taking our chances and about not giving away cheap goals. You give away cheap goals on the road, you make the game really difficult for yourself."
On what positives can be taken to keep building the foundation going into the playoffs: "We're disappointed that we've lost tonight. We're disappointed that we didn't do enough to win, but we also had many, many moments in the game that with small improvements, we know we could've won this football game. For us, it's about taking the positives. We've always done that. We've always faced up to the areas we need to improve on, whether that's individually or collectively as a team. We've always fronted the disappointment. I say again, I take responsibility for every result that we get as a football team. I just said to the guys, the one thing we have to do is we return home, we get on the training field, we get in the video room, we make sure we look at why we won the games that we've won and how we can improve this one, and we go take on Cincinnati. We've had some top games against them. We are disappointed to lose 1-0 earlier this season. We played really well for 75 minutes in Leagues Cup and then lost it and then beat them at home. We're confident that we can put performances in, and we're pleased we're in the postseason. We're motivated now for the end (of the season)."
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