New York City FC player ratings are determined by Hudson River Blue readers — here are your NYCFC player ratings for the team’s second consecutive 1-1 draw, this one against an Atlanta United missing Georgios Giakoumakis.
With a reported attendance of 21,497 at Citi Field, New York City at least came out ahead in one contest: The club comfortably outdrew their hosts the New York Mets, who managed just 15,020 fans for the double-header played on Thursday, and 16,853 fans the game before that.
Those 21,497 in the stands walked away disappointed in the performances of the New York City squad, and your ratings reflect that. We’re once again including FotMob’s ratings as a reference, and most of your numbers are a solid one to two points (or more) below those produced by the algorithm. You’re a tough crowd.
You saved your harshest criticism for striker Mounsef Bakrar, who remains scoreless in six starts. The 23-year-old continues to make dangerous runs and put himself in good positions, and he continues to scuff the ball wide or sky it over the bar.
But it’s not all gloom and doom. You handed your highest rating to Matt Freese, whose 7.6 is higher than the 7.3 handed out by FotMob — and the 7.3 you gave Santiago Rodríguez, your Player of the Match.
Boy, when you fall for somebody, you fall hard.
Note: FotMob ratings are in parentheses.
Mounsef Bakrar (6.2) – 3.8
Santiago Rodríguez (8.8) – 7.3
Alonso Martínez, off 56′ (6.3) – 4.3
Hannes Wolf, off 81′ (6.9) – 5.5
Keaton Parks (7.3) – 6.1
James Sands (7.7) – 5.7
Tayvon Gray, off 81′ (6.8) – 5.5
Kevin O’Toole (7.3) – 5.2
Thiago Martins (6.9) – 5.2
Birk Risa (6.6) – 4.6
Matt Freese (7.3) – 7.6
Julián Fernández, on 56′ (7.1) – 5.0
Mitja Ilenič, on 81′ (NR) – 5.7
Agustín Ojeda, on 81′ (NR) – 5.1
Player Spotlight
From the press box, it looked like Kevin O’Toole had a solid game. The wingback made some important contributions to the attack, and fed key crosses into the box — if New York City’s forwards had been a little more clinical, we might be talking about his first assist of the season.
Instead, we’re talking about a player who was given a 7.3 by FotMob, which is the third-highest rating of the squad (only Rodríguez and Sands are better), and a 5.2 by Hudson River Blue readers, which is the joint fourth-lowest rating in the Starting XI.
Is that fair? Let’s go to the numbers: O’Toole had a pass accuracy rate of 88%, created three chances, and made three accurate crosses. Compare that to some of Atlanta’s better players such as Thiago Almada, who created two chances, or Tristan Muyumba, who had a pass accuracy rate of 87%, and O’Toole looks pretty good.
If everybody on the New York City squad puts up 5.2 performances like O’Toole’s, the team might start winning some games.
Nick Cushing – 3.7
The gaffer understandably decided to play a hot hand by starting Alonso Martínez after he scored last week against Inter Miami, but the winger was neutralized by Atlanta’s 19-year-old Caleb Wiley and was subbed off early in the second half. Them’s the breaks.
There were more bad breaks for New York City as a low shot from Mounsef Bakrar was pushed wide by 39-years-young goalkeeper Brad Guzman, and another from Santiago Rodríguez took a pinball deflection off the woodwork. (See below.)
Your rating seems to register an overall frustration over a full-strength New York City that couldn’t find a way to win at home against an Atlanta missing key players.
Rosendo Mendoza – 4.9
Your relatively comfortable rating for the referee reflects the penalty he awarded to New York City after Rodríguez was pulled down in the box.
But it maybe ignores a second penalty call he decided not to give in the 63rd minute, when Hannes Wolf went taken down inside the box after what looked like a clumsy tackle from Atlanta’s Brooks Lennon.
Should it have been a penalty? MLS 360’s Andrew Weibe doesn’t think so.
Hmmm.
Player of the Match
Santiago Rodríguez
Rodríguez runs hot and cold. That’s the beauty and the curse of the 24-year-old Designated Player: He’s capable of carrying this team to a win, which he almost did on Saturday, when he was running hottt.
First, there was the penalty he converted late in the first half to give New York City the lead. He earned the penalty when he let an Atlanta defender pull him down in the box, and he earned the goal when he sent Guzan the wrong way.
Never in doubt 🇺🇾 pic.twitter.com/Nbz0q8JeA2
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) April 7, 2024
Rodríguez now has three goals this season, which puts him in a respectable 13-player tie for 11th place. It’s even more impressive considering he scored just five goals in 2023, four in 2022, and three in 2021.
| Year | G | A | Min | Min/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 3 | 0 | 614 | 204.7 |
| 2023 | 5 | 8 | 2579 | 515.8 |
| 2022 | 4 | 13 | 2472 | 618.0 |
| 2021 | 3 | 1 | 985 | 328.3 |
Rodríguez could have had a second goal on Saturday night. He was a fraction of an inch away from burying a game-winning screamer.
How 🤯 pic.twitter.com/pomrXdEcTK
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) April 7, 2024
Still, he’s the deserving winner of your Player of the Match vote. He created seven chances, and placed three shots on target. With all due respect to the World Cup-winning Almada, Rodríguez was the best No 10 on the field.
Rodríguez narrowly beat out Matt Freese for the POTM. As Andrew Leigh wrote in the Game Recap, “The two players who have done the most to carry New York City through its first seven matches of the season have been Matt Freese and Santi Rodríguez, and that was very much the case once again at Citi Field.”
A few more votes and Freese would have won your third consecutive POTM. The goalkeeper had another five-save performance, and once again kept his team in the game because of stops like the one he made in the 22nd minute.
THAT MAN AGAIN 🥶 pic.twitter.com/fxsmfSAgIf
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) April 7, 2024
The 1-1 draw might not have been the result New York City wanted, but the performances from Rodríguez and Freese (and O’Toole?) are something the squad can build on.
not sure if anyone agrees w me, but one thing i’ve noticed from this game was ‘most’ of the shots & crosses were sky high. this includes shots & crosses from ATL, too (except the cross for the equalizer) maybe somewhat affected by the Citi Fields lawn condition? IDK. gotta give some credits to Bakrar’s capability being in the right position. just wish he had capabilities in other depts. someone on the X mentioned Sapong, Kamara and the likes comparing to CFG’s choices over EE’s ‘unproven’ youngsters… guess the fans, all o’ us, are in the dilemma in between the potential aka ideality aka the future and the hard result aka numbers aka now. really dunno what to support…
It’s so hard to go through this. And if it’s bad for us supporters, you can just imagine what it’s like within the team and the organization. Nick wasn’t kidding when he talked about suffering.But given the realities of MLS economics, and the timing of our stadium on top of it, I think this is the right course. Unquestionably, it’s a high risk/high reward strategy. And it’s a virtual certainty some players won’t cut it. That’s just the way it works when you go young. You just have to do your best to make sure it’s not too many of them.Right now, we don’t know. It’s just too soon.
Neither here nor there for the subject at hand, but Ojeda spells his first name with only one ‘u’. It’s Agustín.
Correction noted – and thank you.