It's safe to say Ronald Matarrita is steeped in the young but growing history and lore of New York City FC.
Whether or not Matarrita can help provide a material advantage to FC Cincinnati in his first-ever trip back to Yankee Stadium to face his old club remains to be seen, but there's little doubt Matarrita will be a featured player in his return to the historic venue.
After NYCFC joined Major League Soccer in 2015, Matarrita signed on there for the five seasons to follow. He was party to some of the club's biggest accomplishments to date, including its first-ever MLS Cup playoff appearance and five straight trips to the postseason (2016-2020).
In 2019, Matarrita started in all 24 of the matches he played as NYCFC finished atop the Eastern Conference for the first time. Only a rampant Los Angeles Football Club from that season bested NYCFC in the race for the Supporters Shield title.
"Mata" made 106 league appearances for his ex-club, starting 89 of those contests. He added four goals and 13 assists during his five seasons in the blue of City Football Group.
Understandably, there's a great deal of emotion tied up in FC Cincinnati's trip to Yankee Stadium for Matarrita on Saturday (1 p.m. ET).
"New York City brings back a lot of great emotions, a lot of good feelings," Matarrita said during a Thursday interview via a club interpreter. "They were the team that brought me to MLS, so it will be very special to play against them. Now, I will be playing the badge of FC Cincinnati and I will be representing that badge and I will be giving it my all and hopefully getting a positive result in the match."
New York City FC manager Ronny Deila's pre-match news conference on Thursday came and went with some complimentary words about FC Cincinnati but little in the way of reflection regarding Matarrita.
As all managers must do after a personnel decision, Deila seemingly moved on in the time since the December trade that sent Matarrita to FC Cincinnati in exchange for up to $600,000 in general allocation money.
Starting in the left back position Matarrita owned for years in NYCFC's season-opening loss to D.C. United April 17 was Gudmundur Thórarinsson, of Iceland.
At FC Cincinnati, though, Matarrita is thought of as an integral part of the setup for head coach Jaap Stam's 2021 team. He was brought to FCC to defend as much as join in the attack, which is in-keeping with Stam's preferred playing style, and Matarrita did both to solid effect in the season-opening 2-2 draw with Nashville SC.
Matarrita assisted on Luciano Acosta's eighth-minute goal at Nashville, marking the first score of the season for FC Cincinnati.
Matarrita's offerings are of further interest with his old club now in FC Cincinnati's crosshairs. The thought that he might provide information that could help undo his former employer prompted questions about what he might truly offer FCC against a side he knows better than most.
Stam downplayed the idea that Matarrita's insights might flip the game in FCC's favor, although Stam obviously consulted with Matarrita about NYCFC.
"Spoke with Ronald a little bit as well in what to expect and how they want to play," Stam said on Thursday. "So, yeah, you try to gather as much information as you can but also they know that we have Ronald now at the time. They’ve seen us as well so they might make a change. They might be confident in what they’re doing. So, it’s always a guess as to how that game is gonna end up but you always try to prepare as good as you can for this particular game, thinking about ourselves and how we want to play of course. And of course, knowing what they try to do and trying to (stop) them from going forward."
Matarrita was clear about the nostalgia he held for his time at NYCFC.
Without throwing any barbs NYCFC's way, he was equally direct about his allegiance to Cincinnati.
"As a professional, you always have to give 100 percent for the badge that you're representing," Matarrita said. "However, it is nice to go and play at New York City FC. I still have a lot of love for the people at the club, for the fans of the club and for the people in New York City FC.... I definitely want to win that game."
The Game
Kickoff: 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 24 | Yankee Stadium; New York City
TV/Radio/stream: Star64/ESPN1530-AM/fccincinnati.com
Series info: NYCFC owns a 4-0-0 record against FC Cincinnati and has out-scored FCC 15-4 in those four meetings.
Odds: NYCFC (-250) favored to beat FC Cincinnati (+625), according to BetMGM.
FC Cincinnati
2020 record/finish: 4-15-4, last in Eastern Conference
2021 record: 0-0-1, 5th place in Eastern Conference
Goals for: 2
Goals against: 2
Coach: Jaap Stam – second season as FC Cincinnati coach (4-13-6 overall record)
Projected starting lineup:
Przemysław Tytoń (GK)
Ronald Matarrita, left back
Nick Hagglund, center back
Tom Pettersson, center back
Joseph-Claude Gyau, right back
Yuya Kubo, holding midfielder
Luciano Acosta, central midfielder
Kamohelo Mokotjo, holding midfielder
Calvin Harris, left winger
Brenner, striker
Alvaro Barreal, right winger
More:FC Cincinnati trades Frankie Amaya to New York Red Bulls for $950K
More:FC Cincinnati's Przemysław Tytoń, Luciano Acosta named to MLS Team of the Week
More:FC Cincinnati ties Nashville SC, 2-2, to open 2021 MLS season
New York City FC
2020 record: 8-8-7, 7th in Eastern Conference
2021 record: 0-1-0, 13th in Eastern Conference
Goals for: 1
Goals against: 2
Coach: Ronny Delia – second season as NYCFC manager (12-3-9 record)
Projected starting lineup:
Sean Johnson, goalkeeper
Gudmundur Thórarinsson, left back
Alexander Callens, center back
Maxime Chanot, center back
Anton Tinnerholm, right back
Keaton Parks, midfielder
James Sands, midfielder
Ismael Tajouri, attacking midfielder
Maximiliano Moralez, midfielder
Jesús Medina, midfielder
Valentín Castellanos, forward
Players to watch: Przemysław Tytoń gave the best goalkeeping performance from across MLS last week. Unfortunately, he might be tasked with fending off another barrage of shots and chances as FC Cincinnati's under-construction back line and roster awaits further reinforcements. Namely, winger Isaac Atanga is going through pandemic protocols before beginning to train on Monday and center back Gustavo Vallecilla is still navigating the immigration process before they can join FCC. Third-year FC Cincinnati center back Maikel van der Werff (sports hernia) has been ruled out, too. If NYCFC chooses to play an uptempo, attacking game, Tytoń could once again be on the wrong end of a shooting gallery, just as he was against Nashville SC on Saturday. He made a single-match team record 11 saves in that game. Tytoń's capable of standing on his head if he has to and even though that shouldn't be the case, it's possible he'll need to once again this week.
Noteworthy: A result at Yankee Stadium this weekend would be the strongest evidence yet that FC Cincinnati is turning a corner toward being consistently competitive. NYCFC is a strong litmus test to measure FCC's progress because in four previous MLS matches against, FC Cincinnati has only lost to New York. Beyond always losing to the Bronx-based club, some of the worst performances in FC Cincinnati history have come in the series between the two teams. The two matches against NYCFC in 2019 were especially disheartening, with a 5-2 loss at Yankee Stadium and a 4-1 loss at the University of Cincinnati's Nippert Stadium before a crowd of 27,273. In 2020, FC Cincinnati dropped 2-1 and 4-0 decisions at NYCFC, which was forced to play its home matches at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey. New York's usual home ground at Yankee Stadium was unavailable due to the condensed Major League Baseball season in the novel coronavirus pandemic. Saturday's match-up marks FCC's first time back to Yankee Stadium since June 6, 2019, when the goals it scored in the 5-2 loss were both own-goals by NYCFC.
Score prediction: New York City FC 2, FC Cincinnati 1.
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