New York City FC welcome fellow playoff hopefuls Nashville SC to the Yankee Stadium on Sunday aiming to avoid a third defeat on the bounce.
Meanwhile, the away side will be looking to return to winning ways off the back of consecutive stalemates in their most recent two outings.
Match preview
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New York City FC were beaten for the second time in four days on Thursday when they fell to a 2-0 defeat against Chicago Fire at the Soldier Field.
Following a goalless opening 45 minutes, second-half strikes from Robert Beric and Federico Navarro put Ronny Deila's men to the sword.
Having picked up just one point from their last three matches, the Boys in Blue have slipped down into fourth position in the Eastern Conference standings.
The Bronx-based club now prepare for what is only their second-ever meeting with Nashville since the latter's entry into the MLS last year.
Sunday's hosts suffered a 3-1 defeat in the only previous encounter between the teams last month and will be keen to exact revenge this time around.
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Returning to their own turf for the first time in five matches, Nashville had to settle for a point as they played out a 2-2 draw against Orlando City.
Gary Smith's men led by two heading into the hour mark courtesy of goals from Hany Mukhtar and Randall Leal, but they were pegged back in the final 15 minutes thanks to a Daryl Dike strike and an own goal from Tah Anunga.
Nashville remain second in the Eastern Conference but have fallen further behind current leaders New England Revolution who currently possess a 19-point cushion at the top.
Sunday's visitors have amassed just 15 of their 46 points this term away from home which is an area that needs fixing as the season enters into its point.
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Team News
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Hany Mukhtar scored a brace in September's clash between this weekend's opponents, and the German forward will be looking to deliver the goods once again.
Mukhtar is likely to be joined in attack by Charles Sapong despite the 32-year-old forward only finding the back of the net in one of his last six outings.
Ronny Deila has seen his side fail to score in each of their last two matches and might contemplate making some changes at the top end of the pitch.
Deila could turn to the likes of Ismael Tajouri-Shradi and Thiago Andrade as he seeks to help his team rediscover their touch in front of goal
New York City FC possible starting lineup:
Johnson; Thorarinsson, Callens, Chanot, Tinnerholm; Morales, Acevedo, Moralez; Medina, Magno, Tajouri-Shradi
Nashville SC possible starting lineup:
Willis; Romney, Zimmerman, Maher; Lovitz, Leal, McCarty, Godoy, Johnston; Sapong, Mukhtar
We say: New York City FC 2-1 Nashville SC
The home side have struggled to score of late and the visitors will be keen on capitalising on their hosts' toothlessness at the attacking end of the field. However, we fancy New York City to emerge triumphant in what should be a fascinating encounter.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a New York City FC win with a probability of 56.89%. A draw had a probability of 23.6% and a win for Nashville SC had a probability of 19.51%.
The most likely scoreline for a New York City FC win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.35%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.71%) and 2-1 (9.72%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.21%), while for a Nashville SC win it was 0-1 (6.46%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 7.1% likelihood.
