It has been a Jekel and Hyde MIB for the Boys in Blue, which shows up to play v the Timbers in a few hours? If anything less than the team that dispactched TFC in tremendous fashion, there will be problems galore, I konw Giovanni Saverse will have his team at top performance. Given NYCFC over the last 5 games has but one vitory in facing them the odds are not in their favor, but they did play very well last game, are they peaking at just the right time?
The team put out a great quote from Coach I must have missed from their most recent presser on Thurs., "Now we have to be stars, not fireflies. Fireflies last for a day, stars last forever. You have to do the same things over and over again, then you can be a top, top team."
Portland has of course made their lives easier than have NYCFC they downed LA Galaxy & the Dynamo, while knotting it up in facing the 2019 Supports Shield winning LAFC. Their big 3 Blanco, Ebobisse & Valeri are capable of creating all kinds of kaos, even for teams who are at their best, Delia said his charges need to "make problems" for Portland in that same Thurs. presser.
Back to doing the same things over, Castellanos, who was the beneficiary of the no look over the head pass by Moralez, had his following the prescribed tacics of coach as key, as per coach. Ronny informed of Taty, "The difference between what Taty did now and what he did for 3 games ago is that he has started to press the 2 central defenders and #6 player together with the other striker or #10 player, instead of runing at fullbacks and all over the pitch, so the discipline and the organizatoins was really good."
Maxi played well as a sub came in did his job, came out, all hope he is good to start, if not 100%, he will not. Ronny may just look for the dynamic duo of Argentines to link up yet again and counter-press and their defending this game as well, Delia expects each and everyone to do their part in making the offensive threats look great.
Tinnerholm, who it has been said provides the "nasty" to the team stated on his appearance on NYCFC at Home with The Cooligans, "I'm just going to go out there and be as annoying as I can be, so that's the plan." Those who line up against him may think that is always his plan. The defender informed that for him their victory over Inter MIami was a tipping point, similar to their away win with DC United was last year for them making their run to the top of the Eastern Conference. He stated for this next game, "It's just going to be fun to play a quaterfinal and now we feel like we're in good shape and we're going to go out and dominate the game. That is some bulletin board material right there.
Be sure to watch this vital game tonight on FS1/TUDN or listen en Espanol or English on NYCFC.com/Radio. Kickoff is at 10:30 p.m. ET, a much better time for the Portland fans, I already took my nap.