NYCFC clinch third in East with 2-1 regular season finale win over Atlanta United
Courtesy: NYCFC
By Chris Tsakonas
New York City FC will head to the playoffs with the third seed in the Eastern Conference after beating Atlanta United 2-1 at Mercedes Benz Stadium.
“[I’m] really, really proud to finish third,” interim head coach Nick Cushing said. “We are proud to have gone through the difficult period and finish strong with three wins in the league, and now the home playoff game [is coming up].”
NYCFC quickly went out in front - in the 9th minute, Talles Magno slipped a through ball down the right side of the box. Gabriel Pereira got on the end of it and finished with a chip towards the far post to get the 1-0 lead.
Atlanta had a chance to respond in the 23rd minute, when Dom Dwyer set up Luiz Araujo in the center of the penalty area - but Sean Johnson was there to make the easy save.
In the 38th minute, City had another chance to double their lead when Maxime Chanot got his head on the end of a Pereira cross, but the header was saved.
In the second minute of stoppage time, Talles Magno had to leave the game with a shoulder injury, and Heber came in. There is no word on his status at the moment.
NYCFC turned the pressure back up on Atlanta United in the second half. In the 50th minute, Gabriel Pereira nearly made it 2-0 when he caught Rocco Rios Novo off his line from thirty yards out, but the shot was just wide of the near right post.
In the 60th minute, the second City goal came. Pereira delivered the corner kick from the right flag, and a redirected header from Alexander Callens found Heber at the back post. The substitute finished off the redirect.
Atlanta United finally pulled one back in the 67th minute, when Andrew Gutman got on the end of a cross from Thiago Almada and finished at point blank range.
It looked as if NYCFC had their third goal in the 78th minute, when Thiago Andrade scored after breaking through off a lead pass from Keviin O’Toole. The offside flag went up, and the goal was disallowed.
“I thought we were really, really good for 65-70 minutes,” Cushing said. “I thought we missed some opportunities to go 3 or 4-0 up.”
At the other end, Thiago Almada slipped a through ball to Gutman along the left side - but Johnson came up with another save.
Atlanta tried to feed Josef Martinez in a late bid for an equalizer. In the 85th minute, a cross from Brooks Lennon found Martinez in the box, but the shot missed over the crossbar. Marcelino Moreno delivered a cross to him in the 91st minute, but his header was saved by Johnson.
We knew we were going to be under pressure in moments,” Cushing said. “The nature of Atlanta's offensive game is it's potentially the best in the league if you give them space and counter attack, and they put us under pressure because they wanted to finish strong.”
With the third seed locked up and the regular season concluded, the focus shifts to the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs, where NYCFC will host the sixth seed Inter Miami. City split the regular season matchup with Miami, defeating them 2-0 at Yankee Stadium in Taty Castellanos’ final match before losing 3-2 in Florida in August.