New York City FC\u2019s players know what\u2019s at stake during Saturday\u2019s meeting with Charlotte FC, according to Pascal Jansen.<\/p>\n
The two teams meet at Yankee Stadium on Saturday in Game 2 of the Best-of-3 Series in Round One of the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs. New York City boast a 1-0 series lead thanks to Alonso Mart\u00ednez\u2019s wonderful solo goal on Tuesday night and will be hopeful of clinching the series when they take to the field in the Bronx this weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey [Charlotte] know what\u2019s at stake, but the same goes for us; we know what\u2019s at stake as well,\u201d Jansen said. \u201cIf we get the job done in Game 2, it will only take two games, which is supported by our mentality throughout the season; that game-by-game approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t change going into this game. The one thing I do want to mention is that our game in possession has to be clean over two halves, and not just in the first half like it was on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201c[We need] to have a better balance throughout the game. That\u2019s something we have to be aware of, and it will help us maintain good control.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York City\u2019s head coach also reflected on the insights and lessons taken from Tuesday\u2019s victory, as well as his side\u2019s preparations ahead of Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt starts with the same mindset that we had going into Game 1\u2014fully aware that we\u2019re able to beat the opponent, Charlotte in this case, in a way that suits our style,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause that\u2019s what we try to establish every game, to play the game the way we like to play it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also respect the opponent, of course, and are aware of their plans and intentions, but we must be ready to adapt and be flexible in certain situations so we can control the game in and out of possession, and that was the case in the first half.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are good lessons from the first half and from the second half, because our game in possession changed. We weren\u2019t as clean in possession as we were in the first half, but we had to rely more on our defensive structure, which was pretty solid throughout the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dutch head coach is also excited to witness another \u201celectric\u201d home crowd at Yankee Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow they\u2019re coming to our crib, as [Defender] Tayvon [Gray] mentioned, in The Bronx,” he said. “It\u2019s going to be electric. What I\u2019ve seen over the [course of the] season is that when we play in The Bronx, it\u2019s intense, but that\u2019s how it should be, and we enjoy that. Hopefully the atmosphere will be there, the fans will go crazy for the team, and we\u2019ll get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charlotte will be boosted by the return of Wilfried Zaha following his suspension in Game 1.<\/p>\n
The former Crystal Palace and Manchester United winger recorded double figures in both goals and assists during the MLS regular season, with Jansen well aware of what he brings to the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses he brings,\u201d Jansen said of Zaha. \u201cObviously, we played him in Game 1 and Game 2 during the regular season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWilfried is an important player for Charlotte \u2014 that\u2019s something we\u2019re aware of. So his return will have an impact, of course, and we\u2019ll have our plan ready going into Game 2, fully aware of his qualities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City FC\u2019s players know what\u2019s at stake during Saturday\u2019s meeting with Charlotte FC, according to Pascal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[401,9,11,10,12,14009],"class_list":["post-23138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-mls-playoffs","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-nycvsclt-11-01-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23138","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=23138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}