April 15, 2023 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – New York City FC News Release
Nick Cushing hailed New York City’s resilience and fighting spirit in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Nashville SC.
The Boys in Blue overcame the league’s meanest defense to triumph at Citi Field, thanks to first-half goals from Keaton Parks and Maxime Chanot.
The squad also produced a battling display to stave off late pressure from the visitors, who pulled a goal back through Hany Mukhtar and rallied in search of an equalizer.
Speaking after the game, Cushing was delighted with the victory, praising his team’s efforts at both ends of the pitch.
“We know Nashville are defensively a really disciplined team,” he reflected. “The stats back that up – they’re the best in MLS at the moment – so we knew we’d have to disorganize the two central defenders, the two midfield players, and be at our best defensively.
“I thought we did that really well in the first half – we brought the build-up, we didn’t allow them to control us by sitting 4-4-2, controlling the spaces.
“The only disappointment is that we should have been three, or four up. Before we conceded the goal, the game should have been dead.
“Teams go direct, and they see a young team that are probably in the phase of building chemistry, and cohesion.
“They get a goal on 80 minutes, and we concede multiple moments in the box, but what’s really pleasing is that we showed we have the strength to suffer.
“We made a few tactical adjustments that we thought would help us compared to the first game, and we thought we passed the ball well up the field.
“When you get the likes of Richy Ledezma, and Gabriel Pereira on the ball, and these guys, you know you can create moments because they are the games they want – they want to get behind the midfield line, running at the backline, with their friends running.
“We get that game, the crowd feed off it, and that’s when we’re at our best.”
Cushing was also full of praise for midfielder James Sands, who the Head Coach believes produced a flawless performance in the wake of receiving his USMNT call-up earlier this week.
“For me, James Sands was 10/10 in this game,” he declared. “My worry for James lately had been his physical ability, based on the fact he didn’t play so many games for Rangers, but I thought he looked excellent.
“He physically looked good, he reads the game incredibly well, his decision-making on the ball is top level… What he brings to our team is that he gets the ball back. It sounds simple,…
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