New York City FC had to like their chances heading into this game. It's not easy to get a result on the road, but they were facing a New England Revolution that scored just four goals in the seven matches they played so far this season – one of which was an own goal courtesy of NYCFC defender Thiago Martins – and managed to log just two wins despite a roster packed with big signings.
But any hope that New York City could control the tempo of this game faded quickly. New England striker Leo Campana forced goalkeeper Matt Freese to make a point-blank save less than three minutes into the game, and the Revolution continued to expose a New York City defense that looked incoherent and self-defeating. Campana went on to score in the 43rd minute — it was his first goal for New England. Then Ignatius Ganago doubled the lead in the 48th minute with his first goal for the club. A Revolution attack that had looked largely dysfunctional this season was running through NYCFC's defenders, and it was only because of the goalkeeping heroics of Freese that the visitors avoided a blowout.
At the other end of the field, New York City didn't manage to take a shot on target until the 85th minute. Head Coach Pascal Jansen began the game with a Starting XI that featured a strike team of Mounsef Bakrar and Alonso Martínez up top, Hannes Wolf on the right, and Agustín Ojeda on the left, but they barely troubled New England. Midfielder Keaton Parks started the night on the bench, and his ability to progress the ball was sorely missed. He came on at the start of the second half, but it was only after Jasen made three additional substitutions in the 62nd minute that New York City started to challenge New England.
It was too little, too late, and New York City was held scoreless for just the third time this season. NYCFC finished the night in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, with 11 points after nine games.
New York City: 16 shots, 2 shots on target, 50.1% possession, 547 passes, 82.6% pass accuracy, 7 fouls, 4 saves
New England: 13 shots, 6 shots on target, 49.9% possession, 418 passes, 78.5% pass accuracy, 9 fouls, 2 saves
Goals:
• New England, Leo Campana, 43'
• New England, Ignatius Ganago, 48'
Attendance: 21,081
Defensive mistakes
Most troubling for New York City, are the defensive mistakes made by a team that traditionally have been difficult to beat. While New England deserve credit for earning both of the goals they scored, a more disciplined NYCFC defense could have found a way to deny the hosts — and a more organized midfielder could have done a better job of preventing the Revs from creating the chances in the first place.
For New England's first goal, New York City had four defenders in the box. But despite the numbers advantage, Campana and Ganago link up for a simple give-and-go inside the box. It begins with Campana nutmegging Thiago Martins to get the ball to Ganago, who then lays the ball off to an advancing Campana. Ganago's movement causes Justin Haak to overcommit, creating space for a Campana who already beat a flat-footed Thiago Martins.
Campana's shot sends Thiago Martins, Haak, and Jonny Shore to the turf: By that point, the NYCFC defense was a half-second behind New England's run of play.
43' | New England 1 – 0 New York City
Courtesy Apple TV
This is the kind of preventable goal that should concern New York City. The defense looked disjointed all night: Poor communication, scuffed clearances, players caught out. The positional intelligence of Thiago Martins and the physical toughness of Haak were in short supply on the turf field at Gillette Stadium.
It was more of the same for New England's second goal. It came from a set piece: Carles Gil took a corner kick short, received the ball six yards up from the end line, outmaneuvered Jonny Shore, then delivered a cross into the box that went largely unchallenged. Three New England attackers were on the end of that cross — Ganago buried the shot, but the goal could have easily belonged to Campana or defender Brayan Ceballos.
The only NYCFC player who attempted to defend the cross was Bakrar. Thiago Martins, Mitja Ilenič, Kevin O'Toole, and Parks were all moving in the wrong direction to set the offside line, but Gil had already delivered the ball.
Once again, New York City was a half-second behind the run of play. When Gil made his cross, four of the six NYCFC players inside the box were moving upfield, while five of New England's six players were attacking the goal. In the end, the Revs had three open players running at Freese to jump on a perfectly delivered ball that landed directly in front of the goal.
48' | New England 2 – 0 New York City
Courtesy Apple TV
Hudson River Blue Staff
The Mounsef Bakrar question
Bakrar's inclusion in the Starting XI came as a surprise. It was just his third start of the season, and one of those came when Martínez was away on international duty.
Jansen started Bakrar alongside Martínez earlier this season, when New York City lost to LAFC 1-0 on the road. The Algerian striker was quiet that night, with zero shots in 60 minutes of play. He created one chance, but he finished that game with an xG of 0.00 and an xA of 0.01.
Bakrar put up the same numbers last night against New England: Zero shots on target, one chance created. Once again, the striker had an xG of 0.00 and an xA of 0.01. Look at the season as a whole, and the numbers are no better. Bakrar has appeared in all nine of New York City's games, logging 277 minutes. In that time he took three shots, one of which was on target — that game back on opening day, when he came on in the 89th minute to help New York City seal an away win against Inter Miami. Instead, Miami scored a stoppage-time equalizer to steal a point despite being reduced to 10 players.
Did Jansen start Bakrar because he thought he was ready to break a 20-appearance scoreless streak that dates to August 31, 2024, when he scored an 86th-minute equalizer against Columbus Crew only for the hosts to score twice in stoppage time and earn the win? Or was Jansen rotating his thin squad, and opting for an attack-heavy lineup that could challenge a New England defense that has allowed just 7 goals this season, joint second-lowest in the Eastern Conference?
Bakrar continues to be a source of frustration for New York City. The hard-working striker has demonstrated that he has the quality to compete in Major League Soccer, and his attitude and personality make him easy to like. But his inability to score goals – or contribute meaningfully to the attack – makes him a liability. Bakrar might wear the No 9, but his seven goals across 47 appearances over three seasons simply aren't the numbers of a striker.
Matthew Mangam
Roster, season in flux
You can't look at a single game and pass judgment on a season, but New York City's shortcomings in this match bring up larger questions about the team.
Only two players were on the injury list, winger Malachi Jones (who has been sidelined since last summer), and midfielder Jacob Arroyave (a 17-year-old who suffered an ACL injury last year and who was signed to a Homegrown contract in January). In other words, this was essentially a full-strength roster, and yet the club filled out the lineup card by signing 16-year-old NYCFC II striker Zidane Yáñez to a Short-Term Agreement.
We're just nine games into the season, but Yáñez is the club's fourth player to earn a spot on the MLS matchday roster via Short-Term Agreement. These signings are meant to be stop-gaps for teams depleted by injuries or forced to rotate the squad because of schedule congestion: Per MLS rules, players are limited to four Short-Term Agreements each season, and those players can't play in more than two MLS league matches.
Was Yáñez in the lineup to acclimate him to the First Team? After all, 18-year-old Jonny Shore became a starter this season when he was just 17, and he's now an important part of the squad. Or was it a necessary move to fill out an attack that simply doesn't have the personnel to field a complete team despite a squad that, on paper, is at full strength? It's hard to imagine that the teenager's inclusion was a part of a larger plan.
In 2023, New York City papered over what was clearly a rebuild by publicly promising to be competitive even as the team logged a club-low nine wins over the course of the 34-game season. Will the front office be more forthright this year, and acknowledge that the 2025 season is shaping up to be a work in progress?
Or are we still in the early days of Jansen's tenure, a head coach known for developing young players? It could be that Julián Fernández and Ojeda improve dramatically over the course of a season under Jansen, and that veterans like Hannes Wolf and Bakrar start to realize their potential.
In the meantime, we're left with a disjointed and performance like this one in New England.
• New England, Matt Polster, yellow card, foul, 54'
• NYCFC, Tayvon Gray, yellow card, foul, 90+2′
Officials
• Referee: Marcos de Oliveira II
• Assistant referees: Corey Parker, Stephen McGonagle
• Fourth official: Matthew Thompson
• VAR: Jorge González
• Assistant VAR: Fabio Tovar
