NYCFC aiming for MLS repeat after coaching change

By Doug McIntyre
FOX Sports Soccer Writer

Editor’s Note: MLS Footnotes takes you inside the major talking points around the league and across American soccer.

Can New York City FC become the first MLS club in a decade to repeat as league champions? Based on the Pigeons’ last nine games, it’s hard to bet against them.

NYCFC head into Sunday’s marquee clash at the rival Philadelphia Union (6 p.m. ET, FS1/FOX Deportes/FOX Sports app) as the hottest team in the league. They haven’t lost since April 2, posting a 7W-0L-2T record since. But the real test for the Sky Blues awaits.

Last week, MLS Cup-winning coach Ronny Deila departed for Standard Liège in Belgium. Longtime assistant Nick Cushing took over on an interim basis. 

The club earned a point against the Colorado Rapids in Cushing’s June 19 debut, but it remains to be seen if the midseason coaching switch will derail NYCFC’s hopes of becoming the first team to win back-to-back MLS titles for the first time since the LA Galaxy did it in 2011-12.

“There’s tremendous respect for him,” NYCFC goalkeeper Sean Johnson said of Cushing in an interview Friday with FOX Sports. “I think it’s up to us players drawing from experiences from the past and what the change means for the group. It can be an interesting period, but it’s how quickly you can adjust.”

Johnson and fellow vets such as Alexander Callens and Maxime Chanot have been through a mid-year coaching change with NYCFC before. Four summers ago, Patrick Vieira left to coach Nice in his native France. (Viera is now the manager of English Premier League club Crystal Palace.) That history should help.

“Players have a responsibility in that, making sure it’s a seamless job for Nick,” Johnson said. “We’re excited to get on the field and put our best foot forward for him.”

It won’t be easy in Philly. The Union are also in the midst of a long unbeaten run, and although they’ve won just once in their last seven — more than half of their 15 games so far in 2022 have ended in a stalemate — they defeated the Pigeons 2-0 in the Bronx in March.

“The ties are annoying because in most of those games we had the lead,” Union midfielder Dániel Gazdag, fresh off scoring in Hungary’s 4-0 UEFA Nations League upset of England last week, told FOX Sports. “It’s something we’ve talked about, but I believe we have a good team. I think we can beat every team in this league, so we are confident for Sunday.”

FOOTNOTES

1. Lion hunting

Gazdag’s goal against England helped his country hand the Three Lions their worst home loss in almost a century.

Dániel Gazdag gets out in space

Dániel Gazdag adds a late goal to extend the Hungary lead to 4-0 over England.

The lopsided victory was Hungary’s second win over England in 10 days; they also beat them June 4 in Budapest in both countries’ 2022-23 Nations League opener. With the U.S. men’s national team drawn into the same group as Harry Kane and Co. at the World Cup in Qatar later this year, how does Gazdag like the USMNT’s chances?

“Absolutely, I think the U.S. has a good chance against them and against everyone,” he said. “I’ve watched some U.S games since I’ve been here. They have some really good players playing all around the word.”

2. “This offer was the best for me”

Gazdag, 26, had already been capped at the senior international level when he joined the Union early last season from Hungarian club Honvéd. In the not too distant past, established international players from Europe were usually considered too costly for MLS. The league instead focused on recruiting younger foreigners; Sporting Kansas City’s Dániel Sallói, Gazdag’s international teammate and close friend, signed with SKC at 19.

These days, though, MLS has loosened the purse strings enough that teams have the ability to outbid suitors in lower European leagues in Austria, Belgium and even the Netherlands.

“I had some opportunities in Europe but this was the best offer was the best for me,” Gazdag said. “MLS is developing really fast, they sell a lot of players to Europe from here every year. So, there is a way back to Europe from this league if I’m good enough.”

3. Revving up

With five losses in their first eight games this season, it was easy to write off the New England Revolution early on.

But Bruce Arena’s team — which, don’t forget, produced the best regular season in MLS history last season — has quietly turned things around. Going into Sunday’s nightcap in Vancouver, the Revs are unbeaten in eight and sit just four points behind Eastern Conference-leading NYCFC.

Even with Matt Turner’s departure to Arsenal, this is a proven, battle-tested roster. If they make the playoffs they should be a much tougher out than last year, when they lost their postseason opener on penalties to the eventual champs.

4. A consolation prize for the nation’s capital …

Washington won’t host games at the 2026 World Cup — FIFA passed over the city’s hastily arranged joint bid with Baltimore last week — but it will host the MLS All-Star game in 2023, commissioner Don Garber and D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser confirmed at Audi Field on Thursday. 

“This is a nice announcement coming off the back of a disappointing week,” D.C. United great Ben Olsen told MLSSoccer.com

The opponent for 2023 has yet to be determined; MLS’s All-Stars faced Liga MX’s best last August in LA, with the rematch set for Aug. 12 at Allianz Field in St. Paul, Minnesota. MLS has faced an international foe in every All-Star game since 2005, a year after the match was last held in Washington.

5. … And some transfer movement, too

It has been a disappointing season on the field in D.C, too. But help is on the way: the Black and Red inked Chilean winger Martin Rodriguez from Turkish club Altay on Thursday. Rodriguez, 27 previously played for Mexican sides Cruz Azul, UNAM Pumas, Morelia and Mazlatan. He has 12 caps for Chile’s national team.

With Rodriguez on board, DCU, which sits 27th out of 28 teams heading into Saturday’s match against Nashville, sent Edison Flores to Liga MX’s Atlas. Rodriguez managed just three goals in 41 games over the last three seasons as a designated player.

6. Lights out

This weekend’s “California Clasico” between original MLS clubs San Jose and the LA Galaxy will have to wait. As is tradition, the game was to be hosted by the Earthquakes at 50,000-seat Stanford Stadium on Saturday. But a power outage at the school has rendered the venue unavailable this weekend. 

Rather than move the contest to the much smaller PayPal Park, the Quakes rescheduled the rivalry match for Sept. 24.

7. Sidelined in Seattle

One of the best stories of the 2022 season has been the emergence of 16-year-old midfielder Obed Vargas as a key starter for the Sounders. Last month, Vargas helped Seattle become the first MLS club in more than two decades to win the CONCACAF title. Now he’s out indefinitely with a stress fracture in his back.

“It’s a bummer for the kid because he was looking pretty good,” Brian Schmetzer said earlier this week. “But he’ll get through it. He’s going to have a long career.”

Vargas’ injury is also blow for the U.S. Under-20 national team, which is currently competing in the CONCACAF U-20 Championship in Honduras. So key was Vargas to coach Mikey Varas’ plans that the team held a roster spot open for him for the knockout stage. D.C. United midfielder Jackson Hopkins officially replaced Vargas on the U.S. squad Friday.

Meantime, Seattle (3-1-1 in their last five outings) hosts Kansas City on Saturday. SKC arrives in town after just their fourth victory all year last weekend in Nashville, who saw their 25-game home unbeaten run finally come to an end. It was the fourth-longest such streak in MLS’s 27-season history.

One of the most prominent soccer journalists in North America, Doug McIntyre has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams in more than a dozen countries, including multiple FIFA World Cups. Before joining FOX Sports, the New York City native was a staff writer for Yahoo Sports and ESPN.