New York City vs Red Bulls player ratings

New York City FC player ratings are determined by Hudson River Blue readers: Here are your NYCFC player ratings after a cathartic 2-1 win over New York Red Bulls in the first Hudson River Derby to be played at Citi Field.

When the 2024 schedule was first released, this looked to be one of the roughest weeks of the year for New York City: Three games in eight days against tough opponents. But this week turned out to be the most rewarding so far this season, with NYCFC taking nine points out of a possible nine and rocketing up the table to third place in the Eastern Conference. New York City heading into Memorial Day with the fifth-best record in the league? Not many people had that on their bingo card at the start of May.

Even sweeter for the NYCFC faithful, Saturday's win came at the expense of an in-form New York Red Bulls who were more than capable of getting a result in the first Hudson River Derby held in Queens. All wins are worth the same three points, but this one counted a little more.

Your ratings reflect the finally-feels-like-spring vibes that pulsed through the city this weekend. Mounsef Bakrar, Tayvon Gray, Birk Risa, Thiago Martins, and Hannes Wolf earned their highest numbers of the year, head coach Nick Cushing topped his personal best with an 8.4, and even referee Rosendo Mendoza got some love with a 7.4.

Wolf is POTM for the third consecutive week, and for good reason: His goal in the third minute of play was ice-cold, and took out 80% of the Red Bulls defense in humiliating fashion.

In other words, it was everything you could want in a derby win.

Note: FotMob ratings are in parentheses. 

New York City FC and a chaotic, perfect week

New York City navigated through a week heavy on drama, travel, and rivalry matches, emerging with three wins and a sense that the young squad might have accelerated its learning curve.

Hudson River BlueAndrew Leigh