Pre-match: Fire head to the (actual) Big Apple Fire v. NYC 5/25 2:00 pm Apple TV+

The Fire are on a roll, now. Undefeated in May, with five matches (four wins and a draw) under their belt in the month and two remaining.

The Fire take to the road again to battle the disgusting step children of the lying, cheating bastards from Manchester, NYCFC (although, they have apparently dropped the "FC" from their moniker. I guess they are no longer a football club).

The Fire are 9th in the East, with 19 points from 13 matches. The Fire have scored 24 goals and given up 24 (thanks to the shellacking in Nashville!).
NYC(FC) are 7th in the East, with 21 points from 14 matches. NYC have only conceded 14, but have only scored a pathetic 15 goals on the seasons.
A win and the Fire leapfrog them.

Most importantly, the Fire are tied for the league lead with 4 away wins on the season. By comparison, the Fire average barely a win on the road a season.
The Fire already have tied the most away wins for a season since 2012 (when the Fire won 6 on the road) and we are still in May!

As for the opponents this weekend.
NYCFC are a nothing team. They bring nothing to the table, despite being a member of THE GREATEST TEAM (and CONSORTIUM) IN THE WORLD, as part of Manchester City and City Football Group Limited (CFG). The team in NYC have not really benefitted from the UAE dead dinosaur and bigotry money in a very meaningful way. They have had a few "great" players (David Villa, Pirlo, "Fat" Frank Lampard, etc.) but not much lately.

They still play in friggin' baseball diamonds, which is disgusting after 10 years in the league.
They have finally broken ground on their own stadium, a privately funded $780,000,000 venture (of course, they won't have to pay real estate tax, as they are leasing and not owning the ground on which the stadium will sit, costing the City over half a billion dollars in lost revenue over the length of the lease).

This game will be played at Yankee Stadium, a baseball stadium horribly designed for soccer matches. Expect awful site lines, a terribly cramped playing field and, maybe, even visible dirt from the "warning track" and around home plate.

What an embarrassment for the team, the City of New York, the league and the City Football Group Ltd.

New York, New York? What can I say about the "City so nice, they named it twice"?
I have not spent nearly as much time in The Big Apple as I should have. It is an amazing city overall.
While this weekend's match will be in the Bronx, on East 161st, NYCFC are headquartered and their new stadium is being built in Flushing, Queens.

Yes, while "Flushing, Queens" sounds like the name of a particularly bad sitcom, or a drag toilet joke, there is quite a bit to offer there.

Queens is an interesting place. Very urban, but also tree lined and not quite as frenetic as Manhattan or Brooklyn. I had friends in Astoria in Queens.

I interviewed for professorship in Long Island City, Queens. I am glad that I did not get the position, as I feared I would not be able to afford the cost to live in NYC, even in the "unfashionable" areas of Queens.

What I find fascinating about New York City, is, like London, it is incredibly diverse, and spread out.
Each Borough is, essentially, a separate City. They are all in separate counties.
Brooklyn, on its own, is just about the population of Chicago at over 2.7 million, with Queens second at 2.4 million.

Manhattan as one of the great financial centers of the world, as a GDP of $885.652, which would make it the 22nd largest country based on GDP, while Brooklyn and Queens each have a GDP of over $120 billion.

By the way, the GDP of the Chicago metro area was $832.9 billion in 2022 (according to the City of Chicago 2024 State of the Economy report). I am a bit surprised it is that high, but pleased we have kept pace with Manhattan, I guess.

The team itself is nothing to speak of, really.
Currently led by Costa Rican striker Alonso Martinez, the offense is still anchored by ridiculously old (he's 38) #10 Maxi Moralez.

Thiago is currently their only Designated Player, with Brazilian forward Talles Magno is a U-22 DP.

As a team, they have managed 7 assists, one more than Bamba has by himself.

They do have a good defense, though.
Goalkeeper Matt Freese has a 1.0 GAA and 6 clean sheets.

Basically, score against them and you likely win the match.

And the Fire have no problem scoring!
The Fire are three goals off of the Conference lead with 24 goals scored (Phil and Orlando have 27) and have scored multiple goals in 6 of the last 7 matches in all competitions.

I fully expect that to continue this weekend.
They Fire have been shut out twice this season, both 0-0 draws against the Florida teams (Inter Messi and Orlando) both home matches.
The Fire have yet to be shut on the road this season.

They Fire will score and will keep their unbeaten run going.

I could see this being a tight contest, with neither side managing to get the upper hand or, the Fire break through and score at will, as they did against NER, Charlotte and Detroit City in recent weeks.

Since we are in an OPTIMISTIC point in the season, I am going with the latter.

Fire win 3-0.
Cuypers keeps up on his decent run.
Our great Zinckernagel steals another goal.
We receive a third as a gift from NYCFC, perhaps a PK (if they still count), playing out of the back or something else STUPID that happens.

Go Fire.

 

Awesome that you will be there.

Two seasons ago (I think) the Fire played NYCFC and NYRB a week apart. We planned on going to both and seeing family in between. Unfortunately, my better half could not get out of work.

 

Mike Magee should.have had an even better career with the Fire.

He had it all. The talent, the local boy made good story, the "fan friendliness," photogenic, good with the media.

Two more years healthy and he could have been the Fire's all time great, rivalling Piotr Nowak as the best Fire player ever.
It was set up beautifully for him, the Fire, and for us.
Goddamn injuries (and the relationship between him and the team seemed to sour after the injury)
I am sure playing for Potato didn't help anything.

 

Sorry, on mlssoccer.com it stated the match began at 3:00 pm. I caught that and changed the time in the thread title, but forgot to update the poll.

 

Official injury (and "not due to injury") report (Thanks to @Pennsylvania Dave )

Chicago Fire FC

• OUT: Chris Mueller (not due to injury)
• OUT: David Poreba (lower body)
• OUT: Carlos Terán (lower body)
• QUESTIONABLE: Leonardo Barroso (lower body)
• QUESTIONABLE: Chase Gasper (lower body)

New York City FC

• OUT: Malachi Jones (leg)
• OUT: Kevin O’Toole (leg)
• OUT: Andres Perea (leg)

 

Yep, his "not due to injury" has flared up again!