The Major League Soccer season continues to hurtle towards the break for the Gold Cup when New York City FC host FC Cincinnati in a clash between two Eastern Conference sides at Yankee Stadium on Thursday night.
New York City have recovered from a sedate start to the season to push themselves into the play-off places in the East heading towards the halfway mark while a dismal trot for the new boys have them propping up the rest.
New York City FC
I think it is fair to say that New York City FC haven’t really been discussed as one of the better sides in MLS this season so far, but they go into this match, fixture 14 of the campaign for them, having only lost one game this term and it is hard to slate a side for that. The reason they have not been hyped up more is that eight of their 13 outings so far have ended in draws which is 2-3 too many at this stage you would think.
Two of those draws have been in their last two matches so they would love a victory to take into the midseason break with them and boost both their confidence and their position in the table upon their return. If they are going to get that they just need to tighten up a little defensively where they are finding clean sheets harder to come by then we are used to seeing from them.
FC Cincinnati
It has been a brutal welcome to life in Major League Soccer for FC Cincinnati. We are now even at the halfway mark in the campaign yet and they have already dispensed of their management staff. As all new sides do they have a lot of new players and they take time to bed in, something that seems to have been lost on the Cincinnati management, perhaps a legacy of how well Atlanta United have done since they came into MLS.
Cincinnati have 11pts from their 15 matches and have only scored 12 goals in that time. Three of them came in one match earlier in the season so they won’t need to look too far to see where they have been going wrong this term. In saying that, 28 goals against isn’t much better so there is plenty of work for the Ohio outfit to do to be competitive in the second part of their maiden campaign.
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Team News
New York City FC are going to be without the injured Jesus Medina and Ben Sweat but they are not the only ones missing. Sean Johnson, Alexander Callens, Ronald Matarrita and Ebenezer Ofori are all away on international duty.
Cincinnati have plenty of absentees as well with Greg Garza definitely out through injury and the likes of Alvas Powell and Kendall Waston away on international duty. Darren Mattocks and Allan Cruz are also away with their national sides.
Betting
I wasn’t intending on having too many bets in these matches prior to the Gold Cup but given that both sides are missing defenders and key ones at that I can’t help but get involved on the goal lines here. I was expecting to see an inflated line but actually it is quite low at 2.75 and when you figure both teams are going to have largely second string back lines on show here that is surprising.
We’ve seen Cincinnati concede goals at a crazy rate at times this season already. When they went to Orlando recently they shipped five and looked an absolute mess at the back so with the attacking unit NYC have I’ve got to think they are going to find the net a few times here. Cincinnati can’t just sit back and surrender. They need to go forward before they are breached so a line of 2.75 looks on the low side to me.
Tips
WON – Back Over 2.75 goals for a 4/10 stake at 1.85 with 888sport
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