New York City vs Columbus player ratings

New York City FC player ratings are determined by Hudson River Blue readers: Here are the NYCFC player ratings for the 0-0 draw with Columbus Crew at Lower.com Field on Matchday 5 of the 2025 Major League Soccer season.

New York City FC went to Lower.com Field shorthanded and just barely held on for a 0-0 draw with an also-shorthanded Columbus Crew.

When viewed within the context of New York City playing without its leading scorer in Alonso Martínez while also relying on 17-year-olds Jonathan Shore, Máximo Carrizo, and Seymour Reid to log important minutes, the draw away to Columbus Crew looks like a great result.

The other side of that coin: New York City's attack completely failed to take advantage of a Crew squad playing without multiple starting center-backs and wingbacks, unable to target a player like 23-year-old Cesar Ruvalcaba who was making his first MLS start, or to really test 39-year-old backup Crew goalkeeper Evan Bush, who had to make zero saves on the night.

The Crew, meanwhile, peppered New York City's goal with shots and had total control of the game, appearing to win it in the 84th minute, until VAR intervened to disallow their goal for a player offside in the build-up.

Your ratings reflected the duality of the 0-0, harshly grading NYCFC's starting attackers Mounsef Bakrar (4.0), Hannes Wolf (4.9), and Julián Fernández (5.1) while giving more positive grades closer to 7.0 to the members of the defensive back-four.

Maybe unsurprisingly, the vote for Player of the Match was lopsided in favor of this game's highest-rated New York City player by a wide margin, goalkeeper Matt Freese. Read on for the full list of player ratings, a spotlight on center-back standout Thiago Martins, and more on The Iceman's great game in goal.

Note: FotMob ratings are in parentheses.