NYCFC coach tempers expectations as the supporters shield race heats up

After a heroic comeback, New York City Football Club (NYCFC) sits on 50 points with only 29 matches played.

All the teams above NYCFC in the Eastern Conference have played an additional match already. Seven points separate the top of the Eastern Conference and more importantly, the entire league from NYCFC’s current position. Saturday’s home match against Charlotte becomes hugely important for the squad’s effort to decrease the distance from the top. With a victory, NYCFC will go even on points with one less game played than Charlotte.

Coach Pascal Jansen told amNewYork that they are taking it one game at a time rather than thinking about the narrow gap between his team and the league leaders, The Philadelphia Union.

“Like I said to your colleague now. It’s the final stretch of the season. There’s tough matches ahead. We were playing a couple of tough matches(in recent times) because we don’t underestimate any opponent in this league because we simply can’t,” said Jansen.

No promises from the coach, but glory is well within the sights of the team. In 2019 NYCFC won the eastern conference with a whopping 64 points, one place off having the best record in Major League Soccer. If the boys in blue somehow win the remaining five regular season matches. They would break their own record for most points in a season and put added pressure on the higher ranked teams to perform.

Beating Charlotte will be one of the biggest challenges of the season. Charlotte has won 71% of matches against NYCFC all-time. NYCFC has only beaten the scorching hot Carolinian side once. The result came early last season when Alonso Martinez scored a stoppage-time winner at Yankee Stadium while only making a ten-minute cameo in that match. Sounds familiar?

The city boys will face staunch competition in their remaining regular season games. Charlotte FC has won all of their last six competitive matches and have the likes of Wilfred Zaha leading the lines. On Sept. 24, NYCFC will host arguably the greatest soccer player of all time, Lionel Messi. Messi will bring along former Barcelona teammates, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets. After that, NYCFC will travel across the Hudson River to play their arch-rivals, the New York Red Bulls. Next will be the league leaders away, in Philadelphia and finally the inaugural Leagues Cup winners, the Seattle Sounders.