NYCFC Knocks Off Nashville

 

NYCFC celebrates their game-tying goal late in the first half. Photo by Jason Schott.

New York City Football Club overcame an early deficit and a lengthy weather delay in the middle of the game to earn a 2-1 win over Nashville SC on Sunday night at Yankee Stadium.

NYCFC improves to 12-5-8, with 41 points, and they are in eighth place in the MLS Eastern Conference standings. The teams are so tight that they are only 11 points behind Cincinnati (16-4-7, 52 points) for the top spot, and just four behind Lionel Messi's Inter Miami (13-6-5, 45 points) for fifth place.

Nashville came out firing, as they had a point-blank chance in the first minute, and broke through in the 10th when Hany Mukhtar fed a pass down the center of the field to Jacob Shaffelburg, who snuck past the NYCFC defense, and fired it by NYCFC goalkeeper Matt Freese to make it 1-0.

In the 23rd minute, Nashville had a chance to double their lead when they received a corner kick, which was taken by Edvard Tagseth, and it bounced around the box like in a pinball machine before Freese punched it away. (the kick is pictured below) 

Photo by Jason Schott.

As the first half wound down, NYCFC broke through in the 40th minute when Hannes Wolf came down the left side, and slipped a pass to Andres Perea, who took a few steps towards the center of the box before he fired one into the bottom right corner of the net to tie the game at 1.

This was Perea's second goal in MLS competition, and it comes in his last three appearances, with the other one occurring on July 19 against Sporting Kansas City. 

Wolf earned his sixth assist of the season, and he now has 15 goal contributions this season, when combined with the nine goals he has.

Incredibly, this goal came in just the nick of time because play was suspended just one minute later, as the thunderstorm was coming close to The Bronx. The delay would last around 90 minutes.

The game remained tied deep into the second half, but NYCFC broke through in the 77th minute.

Agustin Ojeda drove down the left side of the field, practically to the end line before he sent a pass back to a trailing Alonso Martinez, who found an opening amidst three Nashville defenders, and he was able to flick it in to make it 2-1 NYCFC.

Martinez now has seven game-winning goals this season. It is now the most in a single season in NYCFC history, passing the six that David Villa had in 2015 and Jack Harrison in 2017. Martinez also matched Maxi Moralez for third-most goals in NYCFC history, with 29.

NYCFC remains undefeated at Yankee Stadium this season, as they are 6-3-0.