NYCFC’s Nick Cushing: ‘We Want to Play Our Part’ in New York’s 2024 Sports Successes

New York sports are back. The Liberty are WNBA champions, the Mets, Yankees and Knicks are on the ascent and for the first time ever there’s a Hudson River derby in the MLS Cup playoffs.

New York City FC and New York Red Bulls face off in a winner-take-all Eastern Conference semifinal at Citi Field on Saturday, Nov. 23. No matter who advances, New York will have a representative one game away from an MLS Cup final.

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Nick Cushing, NYCFC’s head coach, says his side is ready to rise to the moment and end 2024 on a high note for New York sports.

“Our regular season run-in trying to get into the playoffs was in conjunction with watching the Liberty win, watching the Yankees and Mets go deep. We want to play our part in that. I said at the end of the season that it’s inspiring. We want to play our part in inspiring sports fans around New York, giving our people something to celebrate,” Cushing tells Sports Illustrated.

Cushing understands the pressure of performing in the Empire State, but also the heated rivalries of derbies both here and in his native England.

“I’m from Merseyside so the derby that’s familiar for me is Liverpool vs. Everton, but also the Manchester derby. Working at Manchester City for so many years, they’re very, very similar… working at City and following Everton I always wanted the blue side to come out on top and that’s no different here,” Cushing said when asked about what derbies draw similarities to New York’s.

“We have to harness the emotion. We have to attack this game as our fans would expect us to. It means a lot to everyone around New York that [is] in blue. Our fans want to see us play with the pride and the passion they show us.”

In the Hudson River derby, the two sides are nearly tied across 25 meetings. Red Bulls have won 11, NYCFC have won 10. There have been four draws between the two teams with a goal difference of four in favor of the Red Bulls.

NYCFC swept the regular season series winning 7–2 on aggregate. The blue side’s home game was at Citi Field as well back in May, so there’s likely some part of Cushing that feels confident they can get it done again in a stadium that only recently said goodbye to Grimace, Jose Iglesias’s “OMG” and just about every other superstitious icon the Mets produced in 2024.

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