Last year, the staff at Hudson River Blue had a "Nick Cushing leaves NYCFC" post ready to go at the end of the season. New York City FC missed the playoffs for just the second time in club history, winning just nine games on their way to logging their second-worst record. If there was a time for the club and head coach to make a clean break, it was in 2023.
But Cushing was back for 2024 to guide the team through an inconsistent season. Both he and the club acknowledged that they were in Year Two of a rebuild, freely using a word they refused to utter in 2023, and the team's performances and record aligned with what you might expect from a young and promising if inconsistent squad. The staff here at HRB saw no reason to prepare a farewell to Cushing after Saturday's loss to New York Red Bulls at Citi Field in the Easter Conference Semifinal of the MLS Cup Playoffs. True, it was a disappointing way to end the season. But 2024 seemed to be more concerned with development than silverware, and Cushing declared to the media that he "will be here next year" just 16 days ago after being linked to Arsenal Women.
New York City FC | Record by Head Coach
| Name | G | W | D | L | PTS | GF | GA | GD | PPG | Win % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nick Cushing | MLS | 89 | 31 | 27 | 31 | 120 | 121 | 119 | 2 | 1.35 | 34.83% |
| All Comps | 107 | 37 | 31 | 39 | 146 | 141 | 5 | 34.58% | |||
| Ronny Deila | MLS | 70 | 34 | 14 | 22 | 116 | 118 | 71 | 47 | 1.66 | 48.57% |
| All Comps | 90 | 44 | 19 | 27 | 154 | 99 | 55 | 48.89% | |||
| Domé Torrent | MLS | 53 | 26 | 14 | 13 | 92 | 92 | 67 | 25 | 1.74 | 49.06% |
| All Comps | 60 | 29 | 15 | 16 | 104 | 76 | 28 | 48.33% | |||
| Patrick Vieira | MLS | 83 | 39 | 22 | 22 | 139 | 148 | 120 | 28 | 1.67 | 46.99% |
| All Comps | 90 | 40 | 22 | 28 | 28 | 151 | 137 | 14 | 44.44% | ||
| Jason Kreis | MLS | 34 | 10 | 7 | 17 | 37 | 49 | 58 | -9 | 1.09 | 29.41% |
| All Comps | 35 | 10 | 8 | 17 | 51 | 60 | -9 | 28.57% | |||
| Total | MLS | 329 | 140 | 84 | 105 | 504 | 528 | 435 | 93 | 1.53 | 42.55% |
| All Comps | 382 | 160 | 95 | 127 | 606 | 513 | 93 | 41.88% |
After all, Cushing took the 18th-biggest payroll in Major League Soccer to a 13th-place finish in the Supporters' Shield standings. True, he didn't get the team to over-perform like Wilfried Nancy at Columbus Crew, who took the 15th-largest payroll to a 2nd-place finish, winning Leagues Cup and making it to the Concacaf Champions Cup final on the way. But he didn't wildly underperform like John Herdman at Toronto FC, who managed just 11 wins with the second-largest payroll in the league while stumbling to a 22nd-place finish. If you just go by the numbers, Cushing's 2024 results were in line with the team's resources.
But the vibes were not strong this year, and fans wanted more from this club and this coach: They wanted Cushing to be better than Nancy. In the end, personnel decisions are made by the club's executives, and the C-suite at New York City decided it was time for Cushing to go.
It wasn't mutual. No press release issued by a club will use the words "fired" or "let go" – the statement from New York City calls it a "departure" – but Sporting Director David Lee is quoted as saying "We believe it’s best to move the team in a new direction as we plan for the 2025 season and beyond." You don't need to read much into those words to see that the decision was with the club, not Cushing.
It's just the second time that New York City fired a head coach. The only other pink slip was handed to Jason Kreis in 2015, after presiding over a poor inaugural season. But the team's record wasn't the only reason why he was let go. Kreis was an MLS lifer who failed to forge an identity for a glamorous new team playing in the league's most important city. That changed under Patrick Vieira, who created the template for the attractive, technical, attacking style of play we now expect from this team.
Likewise, it's fair to speculate that Cushing wasn't let go simply because of the poor record in 2023 and the playoff loss to Red Bulls on Saturday. Those results undoubtedly were a factor, but a larger issue was an inability to get more out of the high-profile signings the team made in the past 16 months. It's a topic we were discussing here at HRB recently, and that Andrew Leigh covered in a post published this morning. That was the story we thought would lead the day.
Instead, it's Cushing who is dominating the headlines, which makes this the right time to look back at his 107 games in charge of New York City.
Hudson River Blue Staff
Andrew Leigh
The Good
As a journalist, it was easy to like Cushing. He was articulate and thoughtful in press conferences, and was eager to respond to questions from members of the press. Sometimes he was dragged on social media for the "coachspeak" he used when he responded to a loss by talking about "a desire to win," or the "hunger" from his players, but that criticism was unfair. Those vague answers served to protect his players: Better to provide a not-so-quotable quote than throw somebody under the bus.
Besides, it was up to the press to ask the right questions. Cushing was at his best when responding to a query that was insightful and/or detailed. He could be abrupt if confronted, but if the questions were thoughtful and observant he was happy to hold forth on his tactics or coaching decisions.
And his tactics and coaching decisions could be astute. Cushing was the architect of some of New York City's most satisfying wins: The 2-0 win over Atlas FC in the Campeones Cup, the away wins over Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena in 2022 and in 2024, the 3-0 soccerball masterclass of a win over Inter Miami in the 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs. Cushing out-coached Tata Martino in September when New York City held a record-breaking Inter Miami CF featuring a fully-fit Lionel Messi to a 1-1 draw at Yankee Stadium.
But Cushing's greatest strength was player development. The biggest example is the transformation of Alonso Martínez from a depth-piece winger plucked out of Belgium's second division into one of the best strikers in MLS. To go by NYCFC's roster build, Martínez should have spent the year fighting to make appearances off the bench; instead, he demonstrated a ruthless clinically in front of goal that put him at the top of the league for goals per 90 minutes alongside Messi and Luis Suárez. Not only that, Cushing decided to cultivate Martínez and play him over Mounsef Bakrar and Jovan Mijatović, two strikers the team reportedly signed for more than $10 million — imagine a chef telling a restaurant owner that the steak and sea bass they brought in that day aren't going on the menu, but he's going to make a delicious dish with the penne they stock in dry storage.
Goalkeeper Matt Freese is another example. Goalkeeper coach Rob Vartughian deserves credit for Freese's development, but it was Cushing's decision to give a backup with just 13 league appearances over four seasons at Philadelphia Union the chance to compete for the Starting XI. In his first full season in goal for New York City, he is widely considered among the best shot-stoppers in the league.
Kevin O'Toole went from a second-round pick in the 2022 MLS SuperDraft to a regular starter, and 2024 MLS SuperDraft pick Malachi Jones quickly became one of the most exciting wingers this year before his season was cut short by fractures to his fibula and tibia. Homegrown Justin Haak, who emerged as one of the squad's most consistent defenders at the end of the season, saw playing time under Cushing after being completely sidelined by previous head coach Ronny Deila: Haak made his professional debut under Domé Torrent in 2019 but went on to make just three appearances in more than two years under Deila, and didn't see any MLS minutes until Cushing took over.
Last year, even Gabriel Segal found success under Cushing. The small, slight striker from Stanford University had exactly zero minutes playing top-flight soccer before joining New York City, presumably, to play for NYCFC II. But the team failed to sign another striker, and when the experiment to turn Talles Magno into a goal-scoring machine (see below) didn't work out, Cushing played Segal, who managed to score twice in 417' distributed over four starts in 10 appearances. At the time Segal was making the league minimum salary of $67,360, which means the club was paying just $33,680 per goal.
Even Talles Magno enjoyed his biggest success under Cushing. The winger was signed by NYCFC in 2021 but made just five league starts in 15 appearances that year under Deila, seeing just 444 minutes of playing time. Compare that to other signings that year, including Andres Jason (6 starts, 20 appearances, 676 minutes), Santiago Rodríguez (11 starts, 21 appearances, 985 minutes), and Thiago (9 starts, 21 appearances, 968 minutes). Talles Magno saw more playing time under Deila in 2022, when he made 19 starts in 21 appearances in all competitions, scoring five goals and adding five assists. But he put in some of the best performances of his career to date under Cushing that same year, when he made 20 starts in 24 appearances in all competitions, scoring 7 goals and adding 4 assists.
Does Cushing deserve credit for the success of these players? That's up for debate. But the fact is their development happened on his watch, and it's only fair to praise a head coach for The Good if you're going to hold him accountable for The Bad.
Andrew Leigh
The Bad
What went wrong with Cushing's tenure is best understood by looking at his results at New York City. As you can see from the table at the top of this post, an overall record of 37W-24D-39L just isn't up to the standards of a club that expects to be at the top of the league year after year.
Those numbers will always suffer from 2023, when the club was unable or unwilling to sign a striker to replace Taty Castellanos, then went on to shed the most talent in "MLS analytical history," to quote The Outfield, when most of the key players who won the 2021 MLS Cup left. Add to that the midseason departure of Gabriel Pereira to Qatar's Al-Rayyan for a reported $10 million fee despite being the team's top scorer.1 It's hard to compete when the club sells your two best goal-scorers and doesn't bother to replace them.
But some results fall squarely on Cushing's shoulders. The 2022 Eastern Conference Final is one, when New York City took a one-goal lead over a tough Philadelphia Union on the road, then suffered a complete collapse in the final 25' of the game.
Philadelphia head coach Jim Curtain responded to New York City's goal by bringing on Cory Burke, a large and physical striker. Three minutes later, Cushing brought on Keaton Parks for Pereira, making a substitute while defending a set piece. Philadelphia evened the score seconds later.
NYCFC’s chemistry was never the same, and Philadelphia scored two more goals in the next 12 minutes. Why bring on a progressive midfielder like Parks instead of a more defensive player like Alfredo Morales, who remained on the bench? It might be unfair to second-guess the decision of a head coach, but in this case, it's clear that Curtin's changes won the game.
Saturday's loss to Red Bulls in the 2024 Easter Conference Semifinal falls under the same category. To be fair, the Red Bulls squad played out of their minds, and it's hard to imagine any team getting past goalkeeper Carlos Colonel that night. But despite New York City chasing the game since the 16th minute, Cushing didn't make a change until the 74th minute when he took off Hannes Wolf, an attacking midfielder with just one goal contribution in the previous 15 games.
It was yet another game in which Cushing won the stats battle but didn't get the result. It's one thing if that happens in an embarrassing loss to Philadelphia at Yankee Stadium, when New York City looked dazed and disoriented as they collapsed to a Union missing key players including goalkeeper Andre Blake — instead Curtin started Andrew Rick, an 18-year-old backup who began the night with five MLS starts and zero wins. On paper, it was a game that NYCFC should have won 3-2, or even 3-1. In real life, they lost 1-5 to a team that failed to make the playoffs.
But it's another to lose a knockout game in the MLS Cup Playoffs, and what was billed as the most consequential Hudson River Derby to date. Cushing's New York City played the game we expected of them, but they didn't look prepared for a Red Bulls that found another gear in the postseason under head coach Sandro Schwarz.
Oliver Strand
Oliver Strand
The Ugly
But individual games are just one factor in making a decision like this one. Last October, after New York City put up the second-most losses in club history, the front office issued an emphatic statement expressing support for Cushing. It stated that the club would "be completely focused on ensuring that in 2024 our Sporting Director David Lee, Head Coach Nick Cushing and the entire Sporting department have the necessary support and resources to significantly improve upon this year’s results."
Cushing's inability to incorporate the team's costly signings into the Starting XI, and cultivate their talents in the same way that he developed the players discussed above, is likely as important as his record of wins, losses, and draws.
It wasn't just Bakrar and Mijatović who were largely left out of the squad, shelving more than $10 million in signing fees that the club presumably will want to recuperate either through results or by improving and then selling the players. It was Julián Fernández ($5 million), a 20-year-old winger from Vélez Sarsfield, and Agustín Ojeda ($5.5 million), a 20-year-old attacker that Argentine newspaper La Nacion referred to as the “jewel” of the Racing Club academy. The rise of Haak is impressive, but he took the starting job away from Birk Risa ($1 million) and Strahinja Tanasijević ($400,000).
It adds up. Cushing's Starting XI vs Red Bulls left $22 million in signing fees on the bench, never mind that Talles Magno ($8 million), who struggled to find minutes this season, was loaned to Corinthians in Brazil’s Série A in August.
For the fans, New York City's greatest accomplishment is winning MLS Cup in 2021. For the club, selling Castellanos and Pereira for a combined $21 million is easily as important. Soccer is a sport, and soccer is life, but it's also a business.
In Europe, the business model is based on broadcast revenue, gameday receipts, selling players, and winning trophies — the UEFA Champions League hands out an eye-watering $2.6 billion in prizes and appearance fees. It's different in MLS, where broadcast revenue and game day receipts are minimal (especially for New York City, which pays rent for every home game), and trophies are mostly for looks — winning MLS Cup or US Open Cup will get you just $300,000, while lifting Leagues Cup will get you a perfectly OK $2 million.
That leaves selling players as the single largest revenue stream for a team like New York City, at least until Etihad Park opens in 2027. Winning a high-stakes game in a knockout tournament with a pieced-together team might've led to some future sales — who wouldn't love to sign a 23-year-old Haak after he shuts down the best attackers in the league? But getting knocked out of that tournament with $22 million on the bench and another $8 million on loan in Brazil doesn't fit the aspirations of New York City, or the business model.
Something had to give, and that something was Cushing.
Oliver Strand
1 When the 2023 season ended, Pereira remained the team's top scorer, with just six goals. It was the second year in a row that NYCFC's top scorer left mid-season but remained the top scorer at the end of the year: In 2022, the 13 goals from Taty Castellanos was a team-best.
