NYCFC have plenty at stake in important regular season finale

When New York City FC regrouped from the international break this week, head coach Pascal Jansen emphasized to his team to remain focused on the task at hand: the Decision Day season finale against the Sounders. 

“For us, the only thing on our mind now is Seattle — nothing else — and that’s how we’ve been working all season. So, nothing’s changed,” Jansen said. 

But it would be easy to understand why NYCFC could see the importance of Saturday’s match at Citi Field beyond just another three points in the table. Though the club has already secured its spot in the postseason, a win — coupled with a loss or draw by Charlotte — would lock up home-field advantage in the first round. 

Considering their 11-5-0 record at home this season, having home-field advantage could very well play a part in how far the club will go in this year’s postseason. Nevertheless, the added stakes aren’t bothering NYCFC, especially star goalkeeper Matt Freese. 

“I think the last eight games, we said we’ve been in playoffs for the last eight games,” Freese told The Post, “because each one was a must-win game. We’ve taken it day by day, game by game, and it doesn’t really change.” 

More important than the win to help their chances at home field is the fact that it would send NYCFC into the postseason on a positive note. They had won their first three matches in September before going 1-2-0 in their last three, including a loss to the MLS-best Philadelphia Union, prior to the international window. 

Seattle offers up another challenge in the final week of the season, even with the club having nothing to play for, at least on paper. The Sounders — 10th in the league in goals and sitting in fifth in the West — already secured their spot in the playoffs, and the match will have no bearing on home-field advantage for them. 

But as Seattle head coach Brian Schmetzer told reporters this week: “We’re not traveling all the way across the country to roll over.” 

Jessica Charman, an MLS Season Pass on Apple TV analyst who will call the match, told The Post that the game does have the ability to set the tone for NYCFC’s postseason run. 

“If you drop points [against Philadelphia], then you drop points against Seattle, you go into the playoffs a little bit with the tail between your legs,” she explained. “I think that then you’re not in as good a position, whereas if you get a good performance, a confident performance, you end up in that fourth seed, you feel like you believe in yourself a little bit more. So I think it’s a confidence meter.” 

New York City FC is coming off an international window in which it saw nine of its players recalled to play for their respective national teams, including key members such as Freese. This led to both Freese and teammate Aiden O’Neill facing one another on Tuesday in Colorado where the United States played Australia in a friendly. 

Jansen joked that he tried to use the friendly rivalry between Freese and O’Neill as extra motivation in training after they returned. O’Neill said that he and Freese went back to being friends “straight away” after seeing one another Thursday for the first time and chuckled when asked if there had been any trash-talking. 

“We definitely spoke about it before when we found out that we’ll be playing each other, and we were both excited to do that,” O’Neill told The Post. “I wasn’t quite sure who was going to come out on top, to be honest. They played really well, and Matt did as well. It was a good occasion and really enjoyed it.” 

As for the playoffs, O’Neill echoed the sentiment of his teammates on where their focus was, and Jansen outright said “no” when asked if he would be scoreboard watching during Saturday’s match. 

As for how important home field would be in the playoffs for NYCFC, Freese had a pretty firm answer to that. 

“Having home-field advantage would be amazing, but to be honest, I’m confident in us, no matter where the game is,” he said. “No matter where that first round is. And we’re just focused on continuing our rhythm, continuing our confidence and another win would be great for that.”