New York City FC Weekly Recap: Clinging onto a Playoff bye

Since our last check in, New York City Football Club has played three games to try and find the form they were playing with earlier in the season. NYCFC was unable to do that, though they did come away with 5 points across the three games that finished with a 1-1 draw away at the Colorado Rapids, a 1-1 draw at “home” against the Houston Dynamo, and a 1-0 victory on the road against the Montreal Impact.

NYC has played well at times recently but have come across a cold streak when it comes to finishing their chances, having scored one goal or less in six consecutive matches. The dip in form has certainly cost the team a few vital points and the club’s stranglehold on the 2nd seed in the Eastern Conference standings is now seriously threatened by expansion team Atlanta United.

That being said, Manchester City’s sister club has clinched a playoff berth with close to a month left in the season and will enter the Playoffs for the second consecutive season.

NYCFC fans have gotten their first look at recent right-back signing Andraz Struna and the team got some key players back from injury, including Ronald Matarrita and Manchester City loanee Yangel Herrera, who came in as a substitute in Wednesday’s game against Montreal with 20 minutes to go to seal the victory.

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You may have noticed that home was in quotations in the first paragraph of this article above. That is because the team was forced to play their “home” match against Houston this past Saturday at Rentschler Field in Hartford, Connecticut, approximately three hours away from the team’s actual home stadium. The game was moved there due a scheduling conflict resulting from a New York Yankees game that was postponed and then rescheduled for the same date.

For those who don’t know, NYCFC play in a baseball stadium (Yankee Stadium) that is the home of the most famous baseball team in the world. So the fact that the Yankees schedule took priority is a surprise to no one who follows either of the teams regularly.

However, there may be light at the end of the tunnel in regards to New York City getting their own soccer-specific stadium. The team has put in a proposal to purchase the Belmont site on the outskirts of Queens. This site is less than ideal and many fans are vehemently opposed to the idea, but there was a deadline for submitting proposals on this location so the organization is just staying open to the option.

All reports are indicating that the Belmont site is not the club’s first choice and there is a lot of buzz about the possibilities which currently include locations in Harlem, Willets Point in Queens, and in the vicinity of Yankee Stadium, so hopefully there will be good news on that front very soon.