\n Quick Read\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York City FC battled Nashville SC to a 0-0 draw at Yankee Stadium. Matt Freese made several important saves to keep the visitors off the scoresheet, while the Boys in Blue created opportunities through Nico Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau, Agust\u00edn Ojeda, B\u00e9nie Traor\u00e9 and Malachi Jones. Neither side could find a decisive finish as both defenses held firm throughout Friday\u2019<\/p>\n
\n Match Recap<\/p>\n
New York City FC were in the Bronx on Friday night as they hosted Nashville SC at Yankee Stadium.<\/p>\n
Head Coach Pascal Jansen made three changes to the team that faced Toronto FC last time out, with Raul Gustavo, Kevin O\u2019Toole and Tayvon Gray replacing Keaton Parks, Nico Cavallo and Mitja Ileni\u010d.<\/p>\n
A quiet start to the contest sparked into life in the ninth minute when both teams registered their first looks at goal.<\/p>\n
Sam Surridge headed over for Nashville before Nico Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau saw his effort blocked by Maxwell Woledzi a minute later. B\u00e9nie Traor\u00e9\u2019s follow-up was then blocked by Patrick Yazbek.<\/p>\n
Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau saw another effort blocked in the 15th minute before Agust\u00edn Ojeda was found in space on the right. The winger drove toward goal and drew a comfortable save from Brian Schwatke.<\/p>\n
Nashville responded through Elias Saad, whose effort from inside the area was well saved by Matt Freese.<\/p>\n
The Boys in Blue\u2019s best chance of the first half came just after the half-hour mark when two new arrivals combined. A clever run in behind from Traor\u00e9 sent him through on goal down the right.<\/p>\n
The winger tried to find Luighi at the back post, and while the Brazilian made contact with the ball, he could not turn his effort on target.<\/p>\n
In the 41st minute, brilliant pressing from Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau allowed the Boys in Blue to reclaim possession in Nashville\u2019s defensive third.<\/p>\n
Combination play between Traor\u00e9 and Luighi allowed the latter to get a shot away, but his effort was unfortunately blocked.<\/p>\n
Yazbek then fired over from distance before Hany Mukhtar was handed a golden opportunity to put Nashville ahead.<\/p>\n
A defensive mix-up saw Freese\u2019s short pass strike Gustavo\u2019s heel. The loose ball was played inside to Mukhtar, but with the goal at his mercy, he side-footed his effort against the crossbar from 12 yards.<\/p>\n
The start of the second half saw Freese called into early action from a corner. Sam Surridge tested him with a low volley toward his right, but the goalkeeper did well to save the initial effort before quickly pouncing on the rebound.<\/p>\n
Nashville\u2019s next chance came from a free kick just outside the penalty area, with Mukhtar standing over the ball. The playmaker took his time before seeing his effort strike the wall.<\/p>\n
Just after the hour mark, Surridge got his head to a cross inside the box but could not keep his effort on target.<\/p>\n
Jansen made his first change of the evening in the 70th minute, with Aiden O\u2019Neill replacing James Sands. Six minutes later, Malachi Jones came on for Luighi.<\/p>\n
Chances proved few and far between as the second half wore on, with the two sides largely canceling each other out.<\/p>\n
In the 77th minute, wonderful play from front to back put Ojeda in on the right. He tried to find Jones with a cross, but his effort was blocked and cleared.<\/p>\n
Whenever Nashville generated an opening, they found a dogged home side in their way. In the 84th minute, Mukhtar created space after wriggling away from two challenges, only for O\u2019Neill to block his shot and allow the ball to trickle into Freese\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n
At the other end, Jones came within inches of breaking the deadlock when a low cross from Ojeda flashed across goal. Unfortunately, he could not get a toe to the ball to turn it home.<\/p>\n
That proved to be the closest either team came to breaking the deadlock, with the contest ending in a 0-0 draw.<\/p>\n
\n What’s Next\u00a0<\/p>\n
Next up for New York City FC is a game against the New England Revolution on Wednesday, September 9. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30PM ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quick Read\u00a0 New York City FC battled Nashville SC to a 0-0 draw at Yankee Stadium. Matt Freese…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7269,9,11,10,12],"class_list":["post-338719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-match-recap","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338719","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=338719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}