Charlotte beat NYCFC on penalties in Game 2<\/a> of the three-match series in November, Kristijan Kahlina was photographed celebrating his penalty saves in front of the Pigeons\u2019 supporters\u2019 section. Then, the photo was re-circulated when NYCFC knocked Charlotte out less than a week later in a 3-1 win.<\/p>\n\u201cI think the games in 2025 showed that we are two competitive teams who have a lot of quality on the field, and I\u2019m looking forward to us playing each other again,\u201d Jansen said.<\/p>\n
The Dutch coach also highlighted that captain Thiago Martins is back on the pitch again, training after Jansen revealed the defender had suffered a minor injury in his right thigh. Andres Perea, who broke his leg in Game 3 in Charlotte, is \u201cgetting very close\u201d to full fitness as well.<\/p>\n
Perea was instrumental towards the tail-end of NYCFC\u2019s 2025 campaign. The all-action midfielder complemented Aiden O\u2019Neill well in the midfield and even popped up with important goals in big matches \u2014 like his lob over Carlos Coronel in the most recent Hudson River Derby.<\/p>\n
NYCFC will be heading into this matchup full of confidence after a comfortable 5-2 win against Westchester SC in the U.S. Open Cup, setting up a Hudson River Derby against the Red Bulls in the Round of 16 later this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helps but we also have to put it in perspective \u2014 it was a cup game where the resistance is different compared to the MLS,\u201d Jansen said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Talles Magno netted a hat-trick, whilst Agustin Ojeda showed off his ruthlessness in front of goal, scoring and assisting twice before the half-hour mark. However, Jansen said Magno is \u201ccompeting with guys in an existing team from 2025, so there is a few things he needs to take care of,\u201d before he deems the Brazilian ready for MLS action.<\/p>\n
Magno is not \u201cphysically there yet\u201d compared the squad\u2019s starters, but \u201cit\u2019s good to see Talles get three goals on Tuesday,\u201d Jansen said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means he\u2019s trending in the right direction in order to stay competitive with the guys that get the starting minutes from the last [few] games.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Charlotte has won three of their last five matches, including a 6-0 drubbing of the Charlotte Independence in the cup mid-week. They sit level on points with NYC but the Boys in Blue are fourth just because of an extra goal scored. In the league, though, Charlotte\u2019s attackers struggled against a flying Nashville side sitting top of the East.<\/p>\n
Archie Goodwin is in fine form for the Crown, scoring four goals in his last four appearances. He is a threat off the bench for Dean Smith, and could even earn a starting spot ahead of Idan Toklomati Jorno this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City FC takes on a familiar foe in Charlotte FC at Citi Field on Saturday evening.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4458,2031,9,24,402,63,6584,122,124,123,400],"class_list":{"0":"post-200783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-charlotte","9":"tag-citi-field","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-city-fc","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nycfc","15":"tag-queens","16":"tag-queens-headlines","17":"tag-queens-news","18":"tag-soccer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}