The New England Revolution have scored enough goals to win recently but an ability to stop opponents has proved to be their downfall of late.
Meanwhile New York City FC are experiencing the problem of not enough defense to counter a struggling offense.
Two teams looking to halt winless skids clash on Saturday afternoon when the Revolution visit NYCFC at Yankee Stadium.
New England (7-3-5, 26 points) has scored 25 goals, tied for third most in the Eastern Conference, but it also has allowed 20. The Revs are on a 0-2-2 skid and coming off a pair of 3-3 draws against the Chicago Fire and Atlanta United.
After overcoming three one-goal deficits last weekend to get a point against Chicago, the Revolution took a two-goal lead against Atlanta on Wednesday before allowing the next three goals. They escaped with a point when Carlos Gil scored his fifth goal of the season three minutes into second-half stoppage time.
“That’s the positive out of all of this, we probably didn’t deserve the point,” New England coach Bruce Arena said. “We were dominated in the second half. Our inability to get around the ball and our passing was poor.
“… Hopefully this is one of these games during the season that probably every team has. They have a bad game, you move on. We’re fortunate to get a point. I think that’s a positive. Hopefully we can learn from tonight and be a better team on Saturday when we go to New York.”
New York City FC (4-7-4, 16 points) sit 14th in the Eastern Conference and are trying to stop a 0-5-1 MLS skid since a 3-1 win over FC Dallas on April 22. NYCFC head into the second meeting this year with New England coming off consecutive 3-1 losses to the Philadelphia Union and FC Cincinnati.
Against Philadelphia, NYCFC allowed three straight goals in a span of eight minutes bridging the first and second halves after Gabriel Pereira scored. On Wednesday, Braian Cufre scored on a header in the 64th minute after Cincinnati scored the first two goals but NYCFC conceded a penalty kick goal six minutes later to Brandon Vazquez.
“It is clearly frustrating for everyone,” NYCFC captain James Sands said after his team was shown the yellow card seven times against FCC. “We worked very hard during the week. We have a good game plan and when things start to go against you, it seems like they are always going against you.”
–Field Level Media