NYCFC brace for visit from Jesus Ferreira, FC Dallas

Jesus Ferreira signed a four-year contract in 2019 with the expectation he would be highly productive for FC Dallas.

The breakout did not occur until last season when Ferreira scored 18 goals to help FC Dallas to a third-place finish in the Western Conference and he is off to a good start heading into Saturday night's visit to New York City FC.

Ferreira is a four-way tie for third in the scoring race with five goals and has scored in consecutive weeks to help Dallas (4-2-2, 14 points) earn consecutive victories.

The 22-year-old scored in the 27th minute two weeks ago in a 1-0 win over Inter Miami when he became the youngest player in MLS history to reach 40 goals and then scored against last week in a 2-1 home win over Real Salt Lake in a game where Dallas was outshot 15-4.

"We're excited and happy with the result," said Ferreira, who also scored Wednesday in the United States Men's National Team's 1-1 tie with Mexico. "Obviously we're not happy about the way that the (RSL) game went, but we beat a team that has been dominating at home and taking care of business."

NYCFC (3-2-3, 12 points) is playing at the New York Mets' Citi Field for the second straight week with Yankee Stadium unavailable. NYCFC is unbeaten in its past three games (1-0-2) and earned a 2-1 win over Nashville SC last week after playing to 1-1 ties against Atlanta United and New England.

NYCFC scored more than one goal for just the second time this year as Keaton Parks delivered a header in the 11th minute and Maxime Chanot scored off a corner kick in the 25th against Nashville's stingy defense, which entered last week having allowed two goals.

"I felt like we lost points (against Atlanta) and we all did," Parks said. "It just feels great to get the three points. We performed from start to finish in this game. Whether we were suffering or playing well with the ball, everybody gave their all the whole time. We deserve these three points."