• Matchday 21: New England Revolution vs New York City FC
• Date and Kickoff Time: Sunday, August 23, 4:40 pm ET
• Venue: Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts
• Forecast: Cloudy and warm but not excessively so, 76F/24C
• Watch: Apple TV
• Apple Broadcast Team: Jessica Charman and Ian Joy (English); Moises Linares (Spanish)
• New York City FC Radio: Glenn Crooks and Matt Lawrence (English), Roberto Abramowitz and Ariel Judas (Spanish)
• Officiating Crew: Guido Gonzales Jr. (referee), Jeremy Kieso and Matthew Schwartz (assistant referees), Filip Dujic (fourth official), Ismir Pekmic (VAR), Fabio Tovar (assistant VAR)
• Kit: New York City will be in the sky-blue Excelsior Kit; New England in the navy, fireworks-themed Independence Day Kit
It is once again a New York City FC matchday, the sixth match NYCFC plays in a span of 17 days dating back to when Leagues Cup started on August 6, and the sixth straight match the club plays on short rest.
It's the first of two matches against the New England Revolution to be played in the next 17 days, since today's meeting in Massachusetts is quickly followed by the reverse fixture at Citi Field in Queens on the night of Wednesday, September 9.
New York City is trying to right its proverbial ship after suffering back-to-back bad defeats while returning to the Major League Soccer regular season after its Leagues Cup run unceremoniously ended, and they're currently stuck in a four-match losing streak across both Leagues Cup and MLS play.
If NYCFC wants to climb higher in the Eastern Conference standings and actually solidify their playoff standing, it need results against teams higher up in the table. The club failed at this on Wednesday night in Cincinnati, punished yet again by a late goal scored by Evander. They did it successfully at home against Chicago before the brief Leagues Cup diversion, and will need to start doing it again as soon as when they face fourth-placed New England, but to do so, they'll have to shake off a rough two-week stretch of performances.
Since beating Chicago Fire at home on July 25, New York City has gone 1W-1D-4L with the four losses coming all in a row in their four most recent matches. The two most recent defeats were particularly crushing ones, with Philadelphia scoring three times in the second half to cancel out a two-goal NYCFC lead, and with Evander grabbing all three points for FC Cincy in the 91st minute.
The vibes are generally sour around NYCFC at this exact moment, conceding late goals to drop points, unable to come back from in-game deficits, and with Designated Players either underperforming or, in the case of Nico Fernández Mercau, the subject of head-turning transfer rumors linking them with a potential $25 million move to rejoin ex-NYCFC sporting director David Lee at Sporting Kansas City.
It won't be easy to shift the vibes by winning at Gillette Stadium, because the Revs boast a formidable 8W-1D-2L record at home this season, the second-best home record in MLS, and because the historic head-to-head between NYCFC and New England has been completely even.
Andrew Leigh
New York City FC H2H Record vs New England
| G | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | 11 | 8 | 11 | 37 | 38 | -1 |
It's a dead heat through 30 all-time meetings across all competitions, just with New England scoring one more goal than New York City, but otherwise with nothing to separate the two sides.
