NYCFC news roundup: John Denis fundraiser and Matt Freese honors

New York City FC finally earned a point on the road last weekend. However, the season on the pitch still is not great, with the team having a 1-4-1 record. There is still plenty of news off the pitch, and some of it is pretty good.

Let's take a look at the next NYCFC news roundup.

NYCFC news roundup: John Denis and Matt Freese

Raising money for John Denis of NYCFC II

As many NYCFC fans know, John Denis of NYCFC II is battling cancer. The player had a GoFundMe set up to raise money to pay for treatments.

Now, NYCFC II and his alma mater, Columbia University, announced they will play in a friendly to support Denis in his battle with cancer. The match will take place on April 6 at the Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium in Manhattan.

It is great that Columbia and the MLS Next Pro side will have a match to help Denis. There are limited details out there, but one would think all money raised will go to the player's cancer treatments.

Matt Freese made the Team of the Matchday

Matt Freese had a superb performance in NYCFC's draw against Inter Miami CF. His five saves and smart goalkeeping kept the Pigeons in the game, leading them to their first draw on the road.

As a result, Freese was named to the Team of the Matchday for Matchday 7. He completely deserves the honor after his hard work on Saturday. He limited Luis Suárez to one goal as well. The Uruguayan was a threat throughout the 90 minutes so that alone is impressive.

However, for some odd reason, the MLS Disciplinary Committee fined Freese for violating the Simulation-Embellishment policy late in the second half. When one looks at the video, there is no simulation or embellishment. Rather, he went after the ball and Suárez made contact with him since he was trying to score. This was a crazy decision, but at least MLS got it right by naming him to the Team of the Matchday.