CHESTER — The nightmare during the MLS playoffs, such is their poor design around FIFA international windows, is to be saddled with a different team of available players after it as before.
That’s the reality that New York City FC is facing this week.
Leading scorer Alonso Martinez suffered a serious knee injury while away with Costa Rica last week. Reports out of South America indicate it is a torn ACL, though the club has only confirmed a knee injury that will keep him out of this week’s Eastern Conference semifinal at Subaru Park.
Coupled with other absences, the Union could see a very different NYCFC team than the one it beat 1-0 in Chester on Oct. 4 to clinch the Supporters’ Shield. Which, in the coaching verbiage of Bradley Carnell, puts a premium this week on making sure the Union are set in their principles.
“We can only control what we can control, and that’s our principles and our game plan,” Carnell said. “That stood us true through the test of time over 34 matchdays and getting through the Chicago series, and we focused on our principles in each phase of play. So we know they might throw a wrinkle into doing something. We cannot control that, but we have to expect that, that they could do that, and be comfortable with any changes that we might have to make on the back end.”
Sunday night’s affair (7:30, AppleTV) is the third time in five seasons the clubs have collided in the postseason.
The Union lost in 2021, 2-1, in the Eastern Conference final in Chester, a game in which 10 Union regulars were unable to play due to COVID-19 positives and contact tracing within the team. A year later, the Union exacted revenge with a 3-1 thumping to advance to MLS Cup final in Los Angeles.
The setting of the Union as the top seed is the same as its been for those two. New York City FC being No. 5 probably means very little at this juncture of the season.
But their absences do matter. Martinez scored 17 league goals this season, eighth in MLS. He has 21 in all competitions for the Cityzens, including the only goal of a 1-0 win over the Union on April 12 at Citi Field.
NYCFC was pushed to three games by Charlotte, winning both times in North Carolina, including a 3-1 victory Nov. 7. But that came at a high cost.
Coach Pascal Jansen has to replace his entire central midfield from that game. Andres Perea, the former Union midfielder, left late with what was confirmed as a leg fracture. Aidan O’Neill picked up his third yellow card in three games, meaning he’s suspended.
Yellow-card counts reset after this round. With no one on the Union picking up multiple yellows in two games against Chicago, no one is in danger of a suspension.
The Cityzens are already depleted by the long-term absence of influential midfielder Keaton Parks. They may need Justin Haak, who has been good as a center back, to step into midfield. They possess some interchangeable attacking pieces, including Nicolas Fernandez, who scored twice in Game 3 against Charlotte, and talismanic playmaker Maxi Moralez. But Jansen could be forced to think outside the box.
“What they do have is difference makers,” Carnell said. “We’re not talking about guys who are suspended and injured. We’re expecting a quality outfit. They’re well coached. They have excellent individuals in transition, and we’re treating this game with the utmost caution and respect.”
The Union are bracing for is a heightened version of what was likely NYCFC’s plan anyway.
Even without Martinez’s spacing and hold-up play, NYC has been effective on the road this season by defending deep and getting out on the counter. It’s what made them so dangerous against Charlotte and is part of why they lost six games at home and six on the road this season, a 6-6-5 away mark from the various bandboxes on which they were forced to play home games this year.
With former Union Homegrown Matt Freese fresh off two more starts with the U.S. and a defense that allowed the third-fewest goals in the East (44), NYCFC will likely back itself to defend deep and dare the Union to break them down. That is where the Union are least effective attacking-wise, and it also leaves open space behind the Union defense for NYC to target.
That kind of club DNA is constant, even if the piece enacting it can change. Carnell is approaching it that way in scripting a game plan.
“They do have some speed and pace and have some gamechangers, with (Nico) Fernandez,” he said. “It’s a good unit. It’s a good team. They have a lot of quality defensively through the midfield, and they’re going to have to package it maybe in a different way. That’s for their coach to decide. But we respect them.”
