New York City FC and Atlanta United have always played entertaining games. Saturday's fixture at Mercedes-Benz Stadium did not disappoint, as NYCFC blew a 3-1 lead to lose 4-3 to Atlanta in a seven-goal thriller.
Hannes Wolf bagged a brace, and Alonso Martínez netted his fourth goal of the season, but New York City could not contain Atlanta's high-powered offense and only had themselves to blame after mistakes from Thiago Martins and Keaton Parks gifted the home side goals in the second-half comeback.
After a strong defensive performance against Columbus last week, NYCFC's backline looked uncharacteristically shaky after a strong start to the game.
New York City: 8 shots, 6 shots on target, 52.9% possession, 487 passes, 88.5% pass accuracy, 16 fouls, 3 saves
Atlanta United: 14 shots, 6 shots on target, 47.1% possession, 412 passes, 85.9% pass accuracy, 12 fouls, 2 saves
Goals:
• New York City, Hannes Wolf, 15'
• Atlanta United, Aleksei Miranchuk, 42'
• New York City, Alonso Martínez (pen), 48'
• New York City, Hannes Wolf, 51'
• Atlanta United, Keaton Parks (own goal), 62'
• Atlanta United, Miguel Almirón, 75'
• Atlanta United, Emmanuel Latte Lath, 84'
Attendance: 42,518
NYCFC put on early pressure
Playing at Mercedes-Benz Stadium is never easy, but NYCFC looked unfazed in front of the Atlanta faithful. New York City pressed, dominated possession, and was the first to each 50-50 battle in the midfield.
The great start paid off, as NYCFC opened the scoring in the 15th minute. Martínez got a shot off from an awkward angle, which Atlanta goalkeeper Brad Guzan saved. But Wolf pounced — as a true Wolf does — on the deflection and redirected his shot in the back left corner for his second goal of the season.
A TIDY FINISH FROM OUR WOLF 🐺 pic.twitter.com/THzRzVfUbc
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) March 29, 2025
New York City continued to excel as Atlanta looked frustrated and sloppy. NYCFC couldn't head into the break with the lead, though, as Atlanta took advantage of a defensive switch-off from the visitors.
A Saba Lobzhanidze pass trickled into New York City's box and fell to the feet of Aleksei Miranchuk, who blasted the ball past Matt Freese for the equalizer. It was a defensive miscue from NYCFC — mostly from center-backs Justin Haak and Martins — and they were punished.
Wild second half
Just how Atlanta punished New York City in the first half, the opposite happened in the second — Martínez was tackled in the box, a prime example of a penalty.
Martínez stepped up to the spot and buried his shot in the top-left corner, despite Guzan guessing the right way. It was Martínez's fourth goal in fives games in his hunt for the MLS Golden Boot.
GOOD LUCK SAVING THAT 🎯 pic.twitter.com/fhS5QGzozc
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) March 30, 2025
The pressure didn't stop there, though.
Just minutes later, Atlanta committed another mistake. This time from youngster Dominik Chong-Qui. Julián Fernández poached on his heavy touch and played a pass to Wolf, who buried it past Guzan for his second goal of the night.
HANNES BRINGING THE HEAT TO HOTLANTA 🔥 pic.twitter.com/O1zWscpFJ2
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) March 30, 2025
Atlanta would not go away, though. Off a quick counterattack, Lobzhanidze played a pass into the box, which Parks directed into his own net to give Atlanta some life. It was the second own goal NYCFC had conceded this season, the first one from Martins against New England earlier this month.
New York City would make another mistake less than 10 minutes later. Martins brought down a ball over the top from Guzan. He called for Matt Freese to receive the ball — who didn't come off his line — as Emmanuel Latte Lath forced the turnover and chipped the ball over Freese and into the net for the go-ahead goal.
"It's something that we didn't anticipate, especially if you looked at our squad coming out of the dressing room," said Head Coach Pascal Jansen. "We had the momentum. Then there's that own goal. Then there's a phase where we defensively switch off, and we allow them to get crosses in the box, and we don't defend the box — like we did last week in Columbus. You get punished for a few errors made."
NYCFC pushed for the equalizer, and despite Agustín Ojeda scoring an offside goal, Atlanta did enough to see out the home win.
Andrew Leigh
A concerning defeat
New York City should've walked out of Mercedes-Benz Stadium with three points — that's obvious. The defensive switch-off from NYCFC that happened multiple times last season — conceding four goals in 11 minutes against FC Cincinnati and blowing a two-goal lead at home to Chicago Fire come to mind — occurred once again but for the first time in the Pascal Jansen era.
So, who is to blame for the loss? Martins? Parks? Freese for not coming off his line to help out Martins? That question can be debated, but the trend of defensively collapsing and failing to see out leads is concerning.
"Mistakes will always be part of the game," Jansen said. "I thought we didn't respond well enough after we conceded the second goal. We were very decisive in defense last week, and that was off in the final part of this game; that's why you concede a few unnecessary goals today."
New York City was gifted goals, and so was Atlanta. Both teams capitalized, but NYCFC simply committed more mistakes to give Atlanta the edge.
After two road games, New York City will be back in the Bronx to take on Minnesota United on Sunday afternoon.
• Atlanta United, Brad Guzan, yellow card, poor sportsmanship 90+4′
Officials
• Referee: Filip Dujic
• Assistant referees: Andrew Bigelow, Rhett Hammil
• Fourth official: Alexis Da Silva
• VAR: Daniel Radford
• Assistant VAR: Kyle Atkins
