Jun 22, 2022; Harrison, NJ, United States; New York City FC interim manager Nick Cushing instructs his team during the first half against the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Nick Cushing would love to be a stop to NYCFC’s winless streak under him. (Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports)

By Michael Lewis

FrontRowSoccer.com Editor

Five games, no wins.

Not exactly the best of starts for New York City FC interim head coach Nick Cushing.

Actually, it’s a nightmare start.

The team continued to drop points on Sunday as the Cityzens allowed two points to slip through their hands as they surrendered a late goal and settled for a 2-2 draw with Atlanta United at Yankee Stadium.

City is 0-2-3 under Cushing, who replaced the departed Ronny Deila, who signed with Standard Liege in Belgium last month.

“I think we’re in a little bit of a period of change or transition,” Cushing told Joe Tolleson and Ian Joy on the NYCFC post-game show on the YES Network. “I also think after the break, we have a lot of time with our game. It takes time to get going. The nature of this league is there’s not so much training time when you play every two every two or three days.

“And I think the nature of this league is you go through these periods. We went through these periods last year. … We’re in it for wins. We want to win football games. We have to now get on the training pitch and push hard to get back to winning football games.”

Out of a possible 12 MLS points, NYCFC has accrued only three. The fifth game was an elimination from the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals by its Hudson River Derby rivals, the Red Bulls

Here is NYCFC’s record under Cushing:

* June 19 – 1-1 home draw vs. the Colorado Rapids

* June 22 – 3-0 loss at the Red Bulls in the Open Cup quarterfinals

* June 26 – 2-1 loss at the Philadelphia Union

* June 29 – 4-4 draw at FC Cincinnati

* July 3 –  2-2 home draw vs. Atlanta United

“Change at times can affect people and can affect teams,” Cushing said. “We’ve had that change after an incredible season last year and a really good run at the start of this year. And the change [comes] and people have to adapt, and people have to go through that period of change and get used to, you know, maybe a new voice and new ways and we’ve not changed so much, and I think you can see that in performances.

“I think we’ve got to make sure we don’t overthink this period. We’ve been through these periods over the last two and a half seasons that I’ve been here where we’ve had hot streaks and then we’ve been a little bit up and down. They tend to come on you have a lot of games that come thick and fast. We’ve had that. We now have to take the rest and move on now to the next home game and make sure that we push out and we get the win.”

 

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Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.