New York City FC capped off the first half of the season with a 2-1 road loss to Nashville SC on Saturday night, its fifth straight game without a win in Tennessee.
Due to the two-month-long FIFA World Cup pause, NYCFC won't return to training until June 18, when they will start preparing for their first match back on July 22 away to Columbus Crew on what will be Matchday 16 of the 34-game regular season.
This break gives New York City some time to get healthy, as eight players were out with injuries against Nashville, forcing head coach Pascal Jansen to make some changes to the usual lineup: Malachi Jones started on the left wing, and Arnau Farnós made his second career start, this time being deployed in the No 10 spot.
New York City went down in the 17th minute, conceding another set-piece goal as Jeisson Palacios made an unmarked run to the back post, heading it past Matt Freese.
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NYCFC has now conceded nine goals from a set piece this season — tied for the second-most in the league — only trailing CF Montréal and Toronto FC, both at 10 goals allowed from dead-ball situations.
"We can see the goal where we give away from a corner, and we don't defend well enough from our own principle perspective," Jansen said. "The finish at the back post is something that we were completely aware of, but a few guys were out of position, so that is based on being very naive in these moments."
