New York City FC just picked up its first away win of 2025 and of the Pascal Jansen Era, defeating Toronto FC 1-0 at BMO Field. It wasn't a barnburner by any means, with neither team doing much to create scoring chances for themselves, but a mistake by Toronto – dragging down Alonso Martínez to concede a penalty kick – made the difference and helped NYCFC earn a slump-stopping win.
Now that the match is over and the win is in the books, here are 5 Thoughts on what just transpired north of the border.
Hudson River Blue Staff
1. Unlocking Alonso
As Alonso Martínez goes, so goes the New York City FC attack. During the first half, Martínez was scarcely involved, with his teammates Hannes Wolf and Tayvon Gray trying and failing a few times to squeeze long passes behind the Toronto FC defense intended for a streaking Martínez. Pascal Jansen has talked of his team needing to get more production from other non-Martínez attackers, but it was once again down to the Costa Rican striker to make the difference in Toronto.
The entire New York City attack came to life following the halftime break, but Martínez in particular started to cause the Toronto backline more problems after the interval.
Martínez almost set up Hannes Wolf to open the scoring, sucking in three defenders and then pulling off a clever backheel pass to an in-on-goal Wolf, who tried to lob a shot into the back of the net only to have it cleared off the line by last-ditch defending from Toronto's Kosi Thompson.
It would be Wolf setting Martínez up for this game's decisive moment, as the Austrian perfectly slid a pass into space for Martínez to carry into the Toronto penalty area and get taken down by a retreating Kosi Thompson to give away the penalty. Unlike in the home loss to Minnesota, Martínez converted his spot-kick and the rest of his teammates managed to make it stand up to earn their first road win of 2025.
2. Surprising close-out defense
Not easy to get used to seeing a defensive back-four of Nico Cavallo, Birk Risa, Thiago Martins, and Tayvon Gray closing out a gritty road win, yet that group held their own and saw out a clean sheet in Toronto.
Gray stepped in at right-back for an injured Mitja Ilenič and played like he hadn't missed a beat, looking extremely sharp for someone who hadn't completed 90 minutes in MLS this season and who limped off injured during the second minute of his only other start of 2025, Matchday 2 at LAFC.
Pascal Jansen needed to get a big performance from him and got just that, so let's get ready to wonder about who should start at right-back once both Mitja and Tayvon are healthy and available for selection again.
Cavallo was one of Jansen's earlier substitutions in this game, replacing Kevin O'Toole after 65 minutes. O'Toole was carrying a yellow card, but Cavallo has looked generally good in his limited MLS action – he was one of the brighter subs to enter in the New England loss last weekend and again held up well in the second half in Toronto. Depth remains an open question for a lot of positions on this New York City roster, but their backup defenders – Birk Risa now included in that group – played a big part in earning the three points in Toronto.
3. Quick start, what's that?
New York City really could have used a "quick start" to their match in Toronto, given how bad they looked during the first half of the 2-0 loss in New England a week ago and how badly they needed a positive result to wash away some of the sting of three losses in their last four matches.
Instead, this was another match featuring what you'd describe as a slow start from New York City. Neither team came out trying to be the aggressor, looking more like they were waiting for their opponent to make a mistake in possession so they could quickly get out on the counter. New York City tried to fluster the Reds with its high press but found little success, while Toronto tried to pick out their big 6-foot-5 striker, Charlie Sharp, with crosses from wide players like Federico Bernardeschi. Neither team found a breakthrough until a Toronto mistake in the second half gave NYCFC its penalty kick chance.
We're now through Matchday 10 and New York City has yet to have a lead in a match going into halftime. Pascal Jansen has still never given his "we're winning, let's see this result out" halftime team talk, do you think he has one prepared that he's been marinating on and refining since February?
4. Back to the Master-Apprentice Midfield
Jonathan Shore played as the lone defensive midfielder on the pitch for NYCFC in the first half at Gillette Stadium last weekend to mixed results, but in Toronto, Shore was reunited with Keaton Parks in the more familiar and seemingly more comfortable midfield double-pivot. Shore and Parks have been together in that midfield for the vast majority of Shore's minutes, and Shore has tended to perform his best when playing next to Parks.
That all-American midfield might be getting upended a bit with the impending arrival of the newly-signed Australian Aiden O'Neill, but what these first 10 games of 2025 have shown us: Pairing the 18-year-old Shore with the veteran Parks can work just fine, especially when you're not asking Shore to do all the midfield dirty work by his lonesome.
Andrew Leigh
5. Windy City
Maybe the conditions had something to do with the slow start and slightly cagey nature of the game in Toronto. Serious gusts were blowing around BMO Field and they weren't coming from Bernardeschi and his beloved vape. It was a blustery day in Toronto, the corner flags at times flapping at full speed due to gusts reportedly as strong as 30 miles per hour in the area around the stadium. Neither team could feel comfortable with their aerial passing game in these conditions, and the setting had the look of a mid-winter match more than one being played on the final MLS Matchday of the month of April.
The conditions would seem to favor a team comfortable with stringing ground passes together, like New York City, though they weren't troubling Toronto much while holding a slight edge in possession. Two attack-challenged teams trying to capitalize on mistakes, be they caused by the wind or by other factors, weren't easy to separate at BMO Field, and the weather didn't help matters.
