Pascal Jansen afforded New York Metropolis FC no excuses for his or her defeat to the Houston Dynamo and referred to as on his facet to “change our mindset” forward of the journey to Nashville SC.
NYCFC have been outclassed on Wednesday as they misplaced 3-0 at house to Houston within the pouring rain at Yankee Stadium.
If some coaches would use the climate as a defence for his or her facet’s show, Jansen just isn’t amongst them.
He acknowledged NYCFC ought to have performed “rather a lot faster, rather a lot sooner, much more aggressively”, complaining they “didn’t create something in any respect”.
Quite than the climate, he stated: “That’s due to us.”
Nashville are up subsequent, and Jansen added: “We had a poor sport. We knew Houston is an effective workforce. Now we have now to modify our mindset.
“We all know Nashville is developing this weekend, and we’ll attempt to win that match.
Heading all the way down to the 615 pic.twitter.com/9019oX4moj
— New York Metropolis FC (@newyorkcityfc) Could 29, 2025
“In video games like this, the place there’s not a lot attacking play, the stress is all the time going to be there. I believe you must put together your self for these sorts of matches, and you must face them in one of the best ways attainable.”
Nashville ought to present an identical take a look at, getting into this encounter unbeaten in 9 in all competitions after exhibiting their resolve in a 2-2 draw with the Columbus Crew.
“Credit score to the group,” stated Hany Mukhtar. “We fought. I believe it reveals the mentality of this group.
“If we’re not on high of a workforce, we nonetheless battle, and it’s very troublesome to interrupt us down.”
These feedback may fairly concern Jansen until NYCFC present far more endeavour of their attacking play.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Nashville SC – Sam Surridge
Surridge’s early objective towards Columbus took him to 9 for the season already, shortly closing on final 12 months’s career-best tally of 12 league objectives.
But the previous Nottingham Forest ahead may have improved that return even additional. His objectives have come from possibilities price 10.6 anticipated objectives, already surpassing the ten.2 xG he recorded in 2024.
If Surridge can get better final season’s type in entrance of objective and outperform his xG, he could possibly be mixing it with the league’s main marksmen.
New York Metropolis FC – Alonso Martinez
Martinez is in an identical place to Surridge. In 2024, he scored 16 occasions from 10.2 xG, but this 12 months, he has simply 9 from 11.5 xG.
That 11.5 xG leads the league, but solely Brandon Vazquez has underperformed his xG by a wider margin.
With NYCFC struggling for fluency in assault proper now, they want their major man to be taking his possibilities once they come.
MATCH PREDICTION: NASHVILLE WIN
Even when NYCFC had overwhelmed Houston in midweek, the shape would have offered little trigger for optimism forward of this fixture.
Nashville are unbeaten in seven in MLS and are significantly dominant at house, amassing essentially the most house factors of any workforce in MLS this season (20).
And on this fixture, no away workforce have ever gained. Certainly, Nashville have gained three from three at house to NYCFC.
OPTA MATCH PREDICTION
Nashville – 43.3%
Draw – 26.7%
NYCFC – 29.9%
