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• New York City FC v Nashville SC: 'Fourth place is everything', claims Cushing

  Nick Cushing has insisted New York City FC's focus must be on rounding off the regular-season strongly as he eyes a fourth-place finish in the Eastern Conference.

  His side sit fifth, two points behind current fourth-placed Orlando City after a 3-2 home victory over third-placed FC Cincinnati.

  They have two games remaining before the postseason, which they have already secured their place in, but they also have the chance to reach 50 points for the first time since 2022.

  With Orlando facing a tough opponent in Cincinnati this weekend, Cushing remains determined to direct his team's focus on their upcoming match.

  "The whole aim of not having a mental slip up [against Nashville] is to focus on fourth place," he told the press.

  "Fourth place is everything to us. We could be playing top of the league. We could be playing the team bottom of the league.

  "Our mentality, our focus, has to be on performing, and on getting intensity into the game and doing the things that have helped us win football games lately because if we continue to win and somebody around us slips up, that fourth place is open for us."

  Their visiting opponents, Nashville SC, find themselves in a different predicament as they sit outside of the playoff spots in 13th place.

  "I think Nashville are a really difficult team to play against. I think under their previous coach [they were] direct, and incredible on set plays,” added Cushing.

  "Hany Muktar is very dangerous. Sam Surridge is a top player. They’ve got good players, and you have to see past results because, with the new coach, they now play a little bit more."

  PLAYERS TO WATCH

  New York City – Alonso Martinez

  Martinez is the joint-ninth top scorer in the MLS this season with a club-leading 15 goals in 24 appearances so far.

  NYCFC have not failed to score in their last five matches, and Martinez will be key to them keeping this streak in the hope of a win against Nashville.

  Nashville – Hany Mukhtar

  Mukhtar had a goal and an assist in Nashville's loss to D.C. United on Wednesday, his 30th career MLS match with multiple goal contributions.

  Only Luciano Acosta and Daniel Gazdag have 20 such matches since Mukhtar debuted in MLS in 2020.

  MATCH PREDICTION: NEW YORK CITY WIN

  The hosts are in hot form. They have won consecutive matches after recording just one win in their previous 14 in all competitions (D9 L4).

  NYCFC have scored eight times in the two matches, the first time the club has scored eight goals in a two-match span since April-May 2022.

  Nashville, on the other hand, have lost six of their last seven regular-season away matches dating back to the beginning of July. They have scored just four goals over those seven matches and have only scored 10 times on the road in 2024, the fewest in MLS this season.

  OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

  New York City – 55.6%

  Draw – 22.9%

  Nashville – 21.5%

• St. Benedict’s College defeats Fatima College 3-1 in SSFL top-of-the-table clash

  St. Benedict’s College secured a 3-1 win over Fatima College in a top-of-the-table clash in Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) Premiership action at the Mahaica Sporting Complex.

  Goals from Captain Derrel Garcia in the 42^nd and 59^th minutes and a third from Ethan Trotman in the 80^th secured the win and allowed them to move to 19 points from seven matches, three ahead of Fatima who have a game in hand.

  Micaiah Leach gave Fatima the lead in the 30^th minute.

  Elsewhere, Arima North Secondary defeated San Juan North 2-1 at Bourg Mulatrasse. Micha’el John gave Arima the lead in the 42^nd minute before Lindell Sween got the equalizer for San Juan North just a minute later.

  Jahmarley Caleb got the winner for Arima North ten minutes from full time. The win moved Arima North up to fourth in the table with 14 points from eight games while San Juan remain in ninth with nine points from their eight outings.

  A Kristian James 66^th minute goal gave St. Mary’s College a 1-0 win over East Mucurapo Secondary at Mucurapo Road.

  Presentation College got the biggest win of the day, a 5-0 victory over Speyside High at Mannie Ramjohn Stadium.

  Thanks to goals from Vaughn Clement, Cody Cooper, Isaiah Jacob, Caleb Boyce and Duhrell Young, Presentation are now third in the table with 16 points from seven games. Speyside have four points from just five games to lie second from bottom at 15^th.

  Hosts Signal Hill Secondary suffered a 1-2 defeat at the hands of Queen’s Royal College. Kyle James got the goal for Signal Hill while the QRC goals came from Teshaun Franklin and an own goal from Raevion Marshall.

  QRC are fifth in the standings with 13 points from eight games while Signal Hill are 11^th with eight points from seven games.

  In the day’s other games, St. Anthony College beat Miracle Ministries Pentecostal High School 3-1 at Westmoorings while a 12^th minute Sumba Cudjoe strike gave St. Augustine Secondary a 1-0 win over Trinity College East at Trincity.

• Calabar edge STATHS 1-0 to assume pole position in Zone D of Manning Cup; reigning champions Clarendon College among winners in dCup

  Calabar High School regained pole position in Zone D of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/Digicel Manning Cup following a 1-0 win over St Andrew Technical (STATHS) in a top-of-the-table clash at their Red Hills Road base on Saturday.

  Jaheim Rankine got the all-important strike in the 34th minute to extend their unbeaten run across five matches and push Calabar up to 16 points, same as STATHS, who were relegated to second with a slightly inferior goal difference. Haile Selassie (nine points), Camperdown (seven points), Vauxhall (six points) and Kingston Technical (zero point) complete the standings.

  Winning coach Andrew Price welcomed the character shown by his team on this occasion to overturn their first leg loss, as players occupied unfamiliar position.

  “The players are resilient; we played today without two of frontline central defenders so we had to patch up the team today and people played in positions that they don’t normally play in. But we have a system that we have been playing for the entire season and once people fit into the system, then the team will play well and they showed some depth and character today to get the three points against a very good STATHS team,” Price said.

  “I think we needed to be a bit more clinical in front of goal, but our strength is our defensive structure; we have only conceded two goals so far in the entire Manning Cup, which shows that we are very sound defensively, and we want to keep it that way. We are developing a football culture here at the school and we are going to continue to work diligently to ensure that we get some success along the line,” he added.

  STATHS started more purposefully and created a few half chances in the early exchanges as the teams battled heavy underfoot conditions due to afternoon showers.

  The Bumper Hall-based team should have broken the deadlock approaching the 20th minute mark but Ajetai Marshall muffed his effort from close range.

  Calabar got into their rhythm and went close to finding the lead at the half-hour mark, but Rankin’s left-footed shot from a distance was parried by Jaheem Williams in goal for STATHS.

  It is often said if you fail to succeed try again, and Rankine did just that to put Calabar in front as he released an even more delightful strike from about 30 yards out that had Williams beaten all ends up.

  Calabar went close to doubling their advantage in 41st, but Williams got down well to his right on this occasion to steer Jayden Perry’s left-footed shot from outside the 18-yard box wide.

  With the score unchanged at the break, STATHS made a push for the equaliser but failed to create any meaningful chances, and frustration inevitably set in, resulting in Alexavier Gooden being sent off for a second yellow in the 54th.

  The numerical advantage created a few openings for Calabar, the best of which came in the 61st Rankine, who rounded the goalkeeper but selfishly went for shot from a tight angle instead of floating a cross in for Perry.

  As the game approached its end, substitute Christiano Brown thought he stole a point for STATHS when she slid one through the goalkeeper’s legs, but the goal was belatedly flagged for an offside.

  That left Head coach Phillip Williams disgusted as he called out the officiating as the worst part of the encounter.

  “It is unfortunate that ISSA has invested so much and the schools have invested so much and the poor officiating just takes away from the game. I think that was the worst thing today; both teams played some decent football but the officiating needs to be better.

  “I think what we didn’t do today was score, we have a style of football that we play and we played that today even when we went down a man but referees need to be better in Jamaica, they are very poor,” a disappointed Williams said.

  Saturday’s Manning Cup Results

  Calabar 1, STATHS 0

  Dunoon Park 0, Eltham 0

  Ardenne High 0, Hydel High 8

  Ascot High 0, Jamaica College 5

  Excelsior High 15, Pembroke Hall 0

  Holy Trinity 0, St George’s College 5

  Camperdown 0, Vauxhall 0

  Saturday’s daCosta Cup Results

  Munro 0, Maggotty 0

  Manchester 1, Belair 0

  Glenmuir 4, Old Harbour 0

  Ocho Rios 8, Ferncourt 1

  Anchovy 1, Green Island 2

  McGrath 0, Dinthill 0

  Maldon High 4, St James 1

  Irwin High 1, Cornwall College 4

  Green Pond 5, Herbert Morrison 2

  Grange Hill 0, Godfrey Stewart 1

  Mannings 6, Little London 0

  Muschett 0, Cedric Titus 13

  Spot Valley 0, William Knibb 0

  Happy Grove 2, Morant Bay 0

  Tacius Golding 0, Charlemont 3

  Cross Keys 1, DeCarteret College 5

  Newell 0, Lacovia 1

  B.B Coke 1, STETHS 3

  Claude McKay 0, Clarendon College 7

  Central 2, Edwin Allen 1

  Knockalva 0, Frome Tech 8

  Cambridge 1, Rusea’s High 3