NYCFC’s Jack Harrison looks to steal the ball from Atlanta United’s Leandro González Pirez as David Villa looks on at Yankee Stadium on May 7.
After a two-week stretch of traveling across the country and playing away from home, New York City FC can see a return to the comfy confines of Yankee Stadium on the horizon.
But first, the Boys in Blue need to complete their four-game road trip as a guest against the team they beat last time they were a host.
After drawing, losing and winning in emphatic fashion in Dallas, Salt Lake City and Orlando, respectively, New York City FC will face first-year Major League Soccer franchise Atlanta United Sunday (5:00 p.m., ESPN) in what will be its first match at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
The Bronx side came out victors in a 3-1 result the first time the sides met at Yankee Stadium two weeks ago, dominating the most potent attack in the league throughout the match on both sides of the ball.
It was a victory for head coach Patrick Vieira’s possession-style of play — one he was criticized for when the results weren’t going his side’s way early in his tenure in New York — over the high-pressing counterattack football of Gerardo Martino’s side.
But that match is long over, much changing in the short time since the last meeting. As NYCFC stumbled before a dominant win in Orlando last weekend, Atlanta thrived, drawing away at Portland before emphatically defeating Houston 4-1 at the same stadium it will host the Boys in Blue on Sunday.
“We know how good they are and we know how strong they are at home,” Vieira told reporters earlier this week. “We saw the game against Houston and saw the amount of chances they created and how many goals they scored. We saw how good they were up front and we expect a really tough game.”
Facing a quick turnaround, with its first midweek match of the season coming up on Wednesday at home against the New England Revolution, NYCFC must be weary of the fitness of its players. Vieira admitted he may have rotated too many players at once against Real Salt Lake, which may have played a role in his club’s 2-1 loss, so it will take a delicate balance to rest his main players without sacrificing the team’s fluidity and chemistry.
Luckily for the second-year manager, he’ll have some reinforcements in his depth. Left-back Ronald Mattarita, who suffered an ankle injury on April 20, and Khiry Shelton, who suffered a muscle injury on April 14, are both back and at Vieira’s disposal after missing seven games each.
On the negative side, midfielder Andrea Pirlo is likely not to make the trip south, according to Vieira, due to a knee injury sustained during the week.
“He’s been playing the last few games with pain in the knee,” he said, according to Empire of Soccer. “We don’t want to risk it and we just have to wait for the fluid come out and he will come back to training.”
Also weighing on Vieira’s mind will likely be the possibility of milestones which could be met in Atlanta by NYCFC. The most important of which would be the possibility of striker David Villa reaching the half-century mark in goals, a possibility he set up with a brace against Orlando City.
The Spaniard was the first signing in club history back in 2015 and it’s safe to say he is its greatest ever player during its very short history — reaching the 50-goal milestone will only prove that forward.
Regardless of who plays, however, Vieira expects nothing short of a similar performance to the one he witnessed in Orlando, one he called “very good.”
“We have to go there, roll our sleeves up and work hard,” Vieira told the press midweek. “If we go there and if we make mistakes, we will get punished. We have to go there, concentrate and work really hard – our team has to perform really well with and without the ball.”
Follow Brian Fonseca on Twitter @briannnnf for updates. Email him at brianfilipefonseca@gmail.com with questions, concerns, tips or story ideas.
