Don't call it the "international break" because Major League Soccer isn't pausing play for this FIFA international window, but New York City FC players are still getting called up for games with their national teams.
Four members of New York City's MLS squad – Alonso Martínez, young Homegrowns Drew Baiera and Zidane Yáñez, and backup goalkeeper Tomás Romero – got summoned for international duty during this late-March window of games.
Alonso Martínez is the headliner, with New York City's starting striker called up by Costa Rica for a pair of Concacaf Gold Cup qualifying matches against Belize, first on March 21 in Belize, then again on March 25 back home at the National Stadium in San José, Costa Rica. Martínez has 19 career caps for Costa Rica, scoring once and assisting once, and will now look to add to those numbers playing under recently-hired new national team coach Miguel Herrera.
The Martínez call-up means trouble for the NYCFC attack, as their leading scorer will be absent for the Matchday 5 trip to Lower dot Com Field to face Columbus Crew on Saturday, March 22.
Martínez enjoyed the games he played against Columbus a season ago, recording two goals and one assist in three meetings with the Crew in all competitions. Winning in Columbus without Martínez might be a tough ask, and history won't be on New York City's side, as their last road win over the Crew came on April 29, 2017, meaning it's been 10 visits to the black-and-gold part of Ohio without a win.
Also unavailable for the trip to Columbus will be 17-year-old Homegrown right-back Drew Baiera, who received a call-up to the United States U-18 team. The US U-18s will be in Marbella, Spain for a training camp that runs from March 17-25 and includes friendlies against youth squads of Morocco on March 22 and Norway on March 25.
That could be a tricky absence given the slightly thin NYCFC ranks at fullback. Tayvon Gray is injured and Nico Cavallo just picked up a groin injury that forced him out of the New England match within its opening half-hour.
Tomás Romero, the 24-year-old goalkeeper available as a substitute on the bench for all four New York City matches played this season, will join El Salvador for two friendlies, one here in the United States against Houston Dynamo at Shell Energy Stadium on March 19, the other against Pachuca of Liga MX back home in San Salvador, El Salvador at Jorge "El Mágico" González National Stadium. Romero has 18 career appearances for La Selecta and kept a clean sheet in his most recent competitive start, a 1-0 win over Montserrat on November 17, 2024, in Concacaf Nations League.
The least-involved First Teamer going away on international duty is 17-year-old Homegrown forward Zidane Yáñez, who is currently with the Chile U-18s. Yáñez is still early into his professional playing career, starting and going all 90 minutes in New York City FC II’s season-opening win over Crown Legacy FC.
At least one of the club's other youth talents not yet signed to the MLS squad will also be away during the international window. Evan Lim, a 16-year-old midfielder from the NYCFC Academy, joins the United States U-17 team in San José, Costa Rica from March 18-25 for two friendlies against Costa Rica on March 22 and 24.
The US U-17s just qualified for this fall's U-17 FIFA World Cup in part thanks to the efforts of NYCFC midfielder Máximo Carrizo, who captained the US U-17s during the Concacaf qualifying tournament. Lim will now get a look with a different set of age-eligible US U-17 players as Carrizo remains with the NYCFC First Team during this window.
All this is good news for the players as they advance in their international careers, but NYCFC will be hoping their international "break" passes with the traveling players avoiding injury or incident – the MLS squad is already thin enough.
