New York City FC earns road point in scoreless draw against the Chicago Fire

By Chris Tsakonas

New York City FC came away with a point on the road in a 0-0 draw against the Chicago Fire at Soldier Field tonight. The draw is New York City’s first result away from home since a 2-0 win over the New England Revolution on May 25.

Here are three observations for New York City’s third draw of the season.

Attack struggles to create shots on goal

While New York City had scored seven goals in the previous three matches, scoring opportunities did not come often tonight. New York City didn’t create a shot until the 26th minute, when a rebound off a corner kick fell to Strahinja Tanasijevic for a shot that was high and wide. New York City went into the halftime dressing room with no shots on goal on just three total shots.

New York City’s closest chance came in the 63rd minute, when Mitja Illenic created space on the right side of the penalty area and curled a shot that deflected off of the far left post. New York City created a total of 0.6 expected goals on six total shots.

Another injury for New York City

New York City suffered another injury setback in the 10th minute when Andres Perea had to come out of the match after picking up an injury off of a sliding challenge from Chris Mueller. Justin Haak had to come on as an early substitute, filling in Perea’s spot for the rest of the match.

“It’s a muscle injury in the upper part,” Cushing said. “We don’t know if it’s his groin, adductor, quad - I’ll leave him with the medical team.”

Perea is the latest in a string of injuries for New York City in recent weeks. In addition to last week’s injuries to Kevin O’Toole and Tayvon Gray on the backline, New York City is also without Maxi Moralez and Malachi Jones.

“I’m disappointed to get another soft tissue injury, because Tayvon, Kevin, Maxi - although we think those guys will be back in training early this week, we’re a bit battered and bruised at the minute so we’ll have to take a look at that,” Cushing said.

Freese, defense preserve clean sheet

New York City was able to limit high-quality chances for Chicago throughout the match, as the Fire were also kept from getting a shot on target throughout the 90 minutes.

In addition to recording two saves to keep his fifth clean sheet of the season, New York City goalkeeper Matt Freese also came out of his goal to intercept the ball and prevent a one-on-one shot for Maren Haile-Selassie in the 33rd minute.

While Chicago had 10 shots over the course of the match, that only translated into a total of 0.9 expected goals.

“I’m really proud that we didn’t lose anything,” Cushing said. “We've shown that we have the maturity and the resilience to shut the game down.”

Next Up
New York City will be back on the road Wednesday night to take on Atlanta United at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. This will be the second meeting between the two clubs, with the first match ending in a 1-1 draw at Citi Field on April 6.

Live radio coverage from Glenn Crooks and Matty Lawrence will begin at 7:15 P.M. and can be heard at newyorkcityfc.com/radio.