The tropical storm was not the only thing happening on Sunday in New Jersey as NYCFC kept their playoff hopes alive with a 3-0 victory over Toronto FC.
The win puts City back in the playoff picture and sitting ninth in the East. NYCFC established themselves from the start with Andres Perea scoring just two minutes into the game and City kept up the momentum throughout the game scorting multiple goals in back to back matches for the first time since April.
City are on a bit of a streak having not lost in five games and catapulting over teams like DC United and Red Bulls to earn a shot at the playoffs. The work is not done, however, with the next match in Miami against Lionel Messi and two more games to follow.
If NYCFC do make the playoffs, it will be a dramatic turn around during the month of September. The team lost all their matches in August and seamed out of touch and out of hope. But some changes in the line up have made a difference.
Against Toronto Sunday, Nick Cushing started Talles Magno on the left wing and let fan see him play with a true number nine for the first time since Taty Castellanos left. Cushing was rewarded for the coice with Magno winning Man of the Match honors and notching an assist on the third goal by Julian Fernandez.
It was the kind of game that forced the question, “Where has Magno been for the past month an a half.” The Brazilian seemed to fall out of favor with Cushing seeing little to no playing time and sometimes not even making the team sheet. On Sunday, he went the full 90.
“Talles [Magno] has found form, and today I thought he was excellent again, although he didn’t score the goal, he was involved in a lot of offensive play. I think it’s just work, and this is a really honest group of guys. They are and have tried to find ways of getting results and better performances every week, whether it be [when]we dominate the ball, but we don’t get chances. The team is working incredibly hard on the training, feel that I’m proud of that,” Cushing said after the game.
When asked about the performance as a whole he had this to say: “Yeah, it is a tough week when you have three games and there is a lot of mental energy involved here with the position we’re in and wanting to win. I said before: it is playoff football. We play a team that’s free, really, in the sense of the way that they play. I knew the first goal was going to be really important, it would give us momentum, and then I thought we’ve just got a little bit. We missed a penalty, and I thought the second goal was going to kill the game completely. And I can’t say enough about Andres Jasson, the way that he has applied himself. I said before, his work rate is excellent, but he has to become an impact player for the team and goal again after an assist in midweek. And, yeah, I thought as a team, we played really well tonight. I agree, we played with real purpose.”
Cushing is right. For NYCFC, these next three games are playoff football. One slip up and they could be out. All three upcoming opponents sit below NYCFC in the table and will be itching for a chance to take over that last playoff spot. If the team keeps playing like they did on Sunday, it should be a very interesting October!
