NYCFC 3-1 Nashville (Oct 6, 2024) Match Analysis

Santiago Rodriguez scored twice early in the first half to help New York City FC jump to a three-goal lead in the first 21 minutes, overcome some defensive woes and cruise to a 3-1 win over the visitors in Harrison, New Jersey, on Sunday Nashville SC posted

NYCFC (14-11-8, 50 points) played its second straight home game at Red Bull Arena due to Yankee Stadium being unavailable and won a third for the first time in five straight wins from May 11-31 competition in a row. NYCFC has scored 11 goals in its last three games after going 0-3-6 in its last nine games.

Alonso Martinez also continued his recent success for NYCFC by scoring for the third straight game, taking him to 16 goals this season.

Hany Mukhtar scored for Nashville (8-16-9, 33 points), which made five of its 22 shots on goal. Nashville fell to 2-11-1 in its last 14 games after being eliminated from postseason contention on Saturday.

Matt Freese made four consecutive saves for NYCFC, including holding Walker Zimmerman and Jack Maher during a set piece in the 79th minute, before narrowly stopping Mukhtar from scoring again in the 82nd minute.

NYCFC built their big lead before Nashville prevailed and controlled the rest of the contest.

After winning the opening kick, NYCFC played the ball back for Freese and found Maxi Moralez in the middle of the field. Rodriguez cut past Nashville's Shaq Moore, parried an initial shot from Zimmerman and then sent a right-footed shot from the center of the box into the bottom left corner.

Rodriguez scored again in the 18th minute when Nashville's Patrick Yazbek failed to stop a cross from Hannes Wolf. Rodriguez finished the game with a left-footed shot from the center of the box.

Three minutes later, Martinez made it 3-0 when he fired a right-footed shot from the center of the penalty area after Rodriguez's corner bounced through traffic in front of the net.

A goal by Jacob Shaffelburg was disallowed for offside, Mukhtar scored in the 58th minute from about 20 meters away by sending a shot into the middle of the net.

–Field level media