New York City FC player ratings are determined by Hudson River Blue readers — here are your NYCFC player ratings after the thrilling 2-1 home win over Toronto FC in the Bronx.
New York City FCF finally tallied their first points of 2024, but the win certainly did not come easy. With Toronto’s early strike in the seventh minute, it looked like Los Celestes were in for another blue Saturday night in The Bronx. But, unlike the team’s attitude after conceding last week to Portland, New York City responded in a big way this time out.
After a couple of decent looks from Santi Rodriguez, Mounsef Bakrar, and Julián Fernández, It was a moment of magic from Santi that brought the game level in the 24th minute. From a dead ball just inside 30 yards out, the Uruguayan curled a beautiful free kick into the top left corner, sending the keeper to the turf empty-handed, and the onlooking supporter’s section into an absolute frenzy.
Then, in the 65th minute, a second spark of brilliance arrived from the left boot of Fernández and the (probably) sore forehead of Kevin O’Toole. If the first goal was sexy, the second was Sydney Sweeney.
Julian’s trivela cross was simply un-defendable, arriving in the box with impressive whip and pinpoint accuracy. But O’Toole had work to do, arriving into the box from an inverted left-back position, and meeting the cross just inside the penalty spot. It flew off his head, off the keeper’s fingertips, and finally off the bottom of the bar before nestling into the back of the net.
The luck of the Irish? Not for me. O’Toole, Julán, and all of NYCFC earned that goal on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day and celebrated like they were on Stone Street.
Things got a bit tricky when Keaton Parks was sent off for a studs-up challenge into the unfortunate ankle of Kobe Franklin, leaving New York to pack it in and defend their slim lead for over 30 minutes when you consider the insane 11-plus minutes of stoppage time given by referee Muhammad Hassan. But, the Pigeons prevailed and escaped with a massive three points.
The win saw some much friendlier player ratings from the Hudson River Blue faithful, with some 9s and 10s getting thrown around for the first time in what feels like ages. The only harsh ratings seemed to be in response to Keaton’s sending off, and Mounsef’s struggles in front of goal.
Mounsef Bakrar (off 90′) – 5.8
Santiago Rodríguez – 8.5
Julián Fernández (off 70′) – 7.3
Hannes Wolf (off 83’) – 7.3
Keaton Parks (red card 68′) – 4.3
James Sands – 6.4
Kevin O’Toole – 7.5
Mitja Ilenič (off 78′) – 6.3
Thiago Martins – 6.5
Birk Risa – 5.9
Matt Freese – 6.8
Andres Perea (on 70′) – 6.7
Tayvon Gray (on 83′) – 6.1
Justin Haak (on 90′) – 6.0
Player Spotlight
Fernández earned an impressive 7.4 rating on the night, with his gorgeous assist serving as the single best moment of individual brilliance I’ve seen in an NYCFC shirt this season. Yes, Santi’s free kick was special, but this ball was just a different gravy for me.
Even beyond the assist, this was probably the best performance we’ve seen from the young Argentine since the last time New York City played Toronto at the tail end of last season. After struggling to make an impact in the first three matches of the season, Julián was much more involved on Saturday, creating a match-high 3 chances, accruing an impressive 92% passing accuracy, and notching more touches than he had in any other match this season.
Fotmob had him at an even better 7.9, affirming HRB’s view on what was an impressive match from an impressive player.
A symphony 🎼 pic.twitter.com/5OQmA5Yz3J
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) March 17, 2024
Nick Cushing – 5.3
I think we have to give some credit to Cushing here today: NYCFC were easily the better team despite entering the match short of confidence. Sure, their two goals both came from individual brilliance, but the team could’ve found the back of the net on other occasions if Bakrar and others finished their chances early on.
And, I think you have to appreciate how the team adapted after going down to ten men. Yes, we went defensive by bringing in Andrés Perea, Tayvon Gray, and Justin Haak, but sometimes that’s what you have to do when you’re playing a man down. They locked down the middle of the park, made the game scrappy, and ultimately limited Toronto to a single chance in the 30-plus minutes NYCFC were defending with ten. That’s Mission Accomplished as far as I’m concerned.
Muhammad Hassan – 3.7
This was a chippy game all around. From the halftime scrum on the way to the tunnel to the Keaton red card, to Matt Freese getting cleaned out on a late challenge, to Bakrar catching an elbow across the face in the second half. Whenever a game gets THAT scrappy, perhaps you can point a finger at a referee and ask that they keep a bit more control out there.
In fairness though, I thought Keaton’s sending-off was the correct call. He caught him high, studs were showing, and there was a pretty significant force. My only counter-argument is that I think I’ve seen red cards shown for less on both the aforementioned challenges to Freese and Bakrar.
Player of the Match
Santiago Rodríguez
Santi is looking more and more like the DP player we brought him back to be at the start of last season. He looks confident, and he’s probably been our most involved attacker in every match this season.
He gets on the ball more than anybody in NYCFC’s attack (he had 71 touches on Saturday), leads our team in goals, and could easily have a few assists on the year if Mounsef was a bit sharper in front of goal through the first few games.
Could he be a bit more clinical in front of goal himself this year? Of course. But, this attack has only clicked when Santi is at the races, and I’m not sure you can say that about any other New York City player this season.
POV: You got a field level view of that beauty 🤩 https://t.co/p123qZbzyr pic.twitter.com/C2TtoySwoi
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) March 17, 2024
gotta say that unsung hero is the mighty Thiago Martins el Comandante. we started to under-appreciate his understated contribution. i can confidently say he’s started to shown why he was ‘that’ DP choice where everyone had scratched their heads. calm, safe-first—yet busy to recover Mitjia’s & Risa’s off-touches + as a not-too-much-emotional captain on the pitch, he has really starte to shown to be the ‘anchor’ & the ‘safe harbor’. he’s best quality by far, IMO is that getting the job with less attention. having been involved with the set pieces, sure he can dominate the top MLS CB. position over Miazga, Long, Zimmerman a and/or Kristov, trust me. this guys’s character is “stabilty in a caution of safety”, much needed quality for the pigeons. i’ve given him 9.
My take after finally watching the replay…The good:Amazing goals. Santi with the free kick was energizing (and as mentioned in this article, he just creates better than anyone on the pitch). And then the Fernandez trivela to O’Toole was an absolute thing of beauty. We seemed to play with more passion and aggression for a large part of the match, which I liked. And of course, parking the bus for over 30 minutes largely seemed to be effective – I have no issue with the subs Cushing went with. Thiago, as mentioned, was strong and is becoming the leader that Chanot was.The bad:Other than successfully killing those last 30+ minutes, I thought our defense was suspect. Would really like a more astute football observer to comment on this and tell me if I’m incorrect, but I thought we were extremely lucky to finish with a win rather than a draw, or even a loss. Even when we were at full strength, we seemed to get soft/slow at terrible times, allowing Toronto playmakers to get behind us in front of the net with excellent scoring opportunities. Toronto scored their first goal that way and almost got a couple more. Saw some of this last season as well. Risa and company need to WAKE UP and stop getting beaten back there so often.The ugly:Parks’ red card. I don’t know if I totally agreed with the call, when watching it in real time, but probably it was the correct call. Regardless it doesn’t matter. Experienced player can’t put the team in that position with 20+ minutes left in a close match. And not having him against FC Cincinnati could really hurt.Still, a win is a win and hoping for momentum going into a tough road stretch!