Published by Scott Churchson of Stream Punk Entertainment – NYCFC Keeps Rolling, Breaks 50 Points in a Season for the 7th Time (Plus 5 Stats)
HARRISON, NJ — The New York City Football Club came out of the gate like a team possessed on route to a 3-1 win over visiting Nashville SC, as the regular season came to a close, breaking the 50 point mark in a season for the seventh time in their 10-year history. It took literally 17 seconds for the home club to take an early 1-0 lead, as Santiago Rodríguez took a shot from the center of the box to the left side of the net for the 10th fastest goal in MLS history.
NYCFC’s Santiago Rodríguez moments after his goal on Saturday – Image Credit: Diego Abarca/Latino Sports
17 minutes later, Rodríguez picked up his second of the half, going left side of the box for a 2-0 lead that would last three minutes, as Alonso Martínez picked up his team leading 16th of the year by the 21st minute.
These three goals in the first half was the fastest NYCFC picked up three since 2021 when they picked up a three spot against DC in 11 minutes.
NYCFC’s Alonso Martínez celebrates his goal scored on Saturday – Image Credit: Diego Abarca/Latino Sports
Hany Mukhtar ended up putting Nashville on the board at the 58 minute mark to avoid the shutout for the team eliminated from playoff contention just a day before. However, despite over 20 shots towards the net (the second time this season NYCFC has allowed 20 or more), the final ended at 3-1.
After the match, head coach Nick Cushing talked about the match and what the goal was at the beginning of the season, “We didn’t score enough goals last year, so we set a target of scoring 55 goals this season. We believed that if we scored 55 goals, we’d be around fourth place, knowing that last year our defensive record was the second-best in the Eastern Conference. I’m proud that we’ve achieved that target.”
The club has a week off because of an international break and will play its final match of the regular season up north in Montreal, Canada, on October 19 in an attempt to land a fourth place spot in the East and two home matches in the best of three series.
5 STATS
1) Since 2022 in MLS play, NYCFC is in fact 5W-1L-0D at Red Bull Arena.
2) This match was the second time this season that NYCFC has allowed 20 shots on goal in a match (as I mentioned). The other time it occurred was against Philadelphia earlier in the year (otherwise known as the Raccoon game):
3) NYCFC is now 6W-0L-0D when scoring at least three.
4) This is also the fourth time in team history that the club has scored at least three in three straight matches. The last time that took place was April 17 – May 1 in 2022 (6 against Real Salt Lake, five against Toronto followed by three vs San Jose)
5) This was also the second time that Santiago Rodriguez has scored two in a match, previously doing it back in April of 2023 against Dallas. Additionally at 12 goals this season, he has doubled his previous best season in goals when he had six goals in 2019 while playing in Uruguay for Nacional.
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