With the 2024 Major League Soccer season officially in the books, it’s time to look back on the New York City FC player ratings handed out by the readers of Hudson River Blue.
You voted on player ratings after every single match this year, 43 in total: That includes 34 league games, 4 MLS Cup Playoff games, and 5 Leagues Cup games. It adds up to thousands of ratings for hundreds of performances, all carefully registered and cataloged by PricewaterhouseCoopers on a Google Sheet throughout the year.
Which brings us to the year-end NYCFC player ratings, in which we average all those numbers. We also look at the best (and worst performance) of the year by each player, and how many times they were voted Player of the Match.
A couple of observations. One, Matt Freese and Santiago RodrĂguez not only lead the teams with 10 POTMs each, they lead the teams in starts, Freese with 42 and RodrĂguez with 40. (Thiago Martins also made 40 starts.) Two, you’re a tough audience: Your ratings were consistently lower than those handed out by the FotMob algorithm. Only your ratings for Freese and Malachi Jones were higher than FotMob’s.
Three, the gutting home loss to Philadelphia Union at Yankee Stadium did more damage to the team’s average than any other single game: Nine players earned their lowest rating of the year that night. Four, the team’s stronger performances are distributed among a handful of games, including the wins over New York Red Bulls at Citi Field in May and at Red Bull Arena (now Sports Illustrated Stadium?!?) in September.
Former Head Coach Nick Cushing averaged just a 5.3 on the year, lower than everybody else here save for Mounsef Bakrar (5.2), the referees (5.0), Jovan Mijatović (4.6), and the recently-traded Luis Barraza (4.4).
Naturally, Raquinho makes an appearance in this season’s wrap-up. The raccoon was the real star of New York City’s away win at Philadelphia Union in May, and his 9.4 rating was the highest in HRB history until Alonso MartĂnez earned a 9.5 a few weeks later after scoring a hat-trick against San Jose Earthquakes as a sub.
That record stood until the second-to-last-game of the year, when you rewarded Matt Freese’s goalkeeping heroics against FC Cincinnati in the MLS Cup Playoffs with a well-deserved 9.7.
Note: FotMob ratings are in parentheses.
• Matt Freese (6.9) – 7.5
Apps: 41
Starts: 41
High: 9.7, MLS Cup Playoffs Round One, Game 3 vs FC Cincinnati
Low: 3.6, Matchday 29 vs Philadelphia Union
POTM: 10
• Santiago RodrĂguez (7.5) – 6.9
Apps: 40
Starts: 40
High: 8.9, Matchday 9 vs DC United
Low: 4.2, Matchday 29 vs Philadelphia Union
POTM: 10
• Maxi Moralez (7.1) – 6.8
Apps: 26
Starts: 16
High: 9.2, Matchday 16 vs San Jose Earthquakes
Low: 4.7, Matchday 29 vs Philadelphia Union
POTM: 0
• Malachi Jones (6.7) – 6.8
Apps: 13
Starts: 4
High: 8.1, Matchday 12 vs Toronto FC
Low: 4.9, Matchday 11 vs Colorado Rapids
POTM: 2
• Alonso MartĂnez (7.1) – 6.6
Apps: 34
Starts: 25
High: 9.5, Matchday 16 vs San Jose Earthquakes
Low: 4.2, Leagues Cup Group Stage vs FC Cincinnati
POTM: 7
• Thiago Martins (6.8) – 6.4
Appearances: 40
Starts: 40
High: 8.5, MLS Cup Playoffs Round One, Game 2 vs FC Cincinnati
Low: 3.1, Matchday 29 vs Philadelphia Union
POTM: 1
• Talles Magno* (7.2) – 6.4
Appearances: 4
Starts: 1
High: 8.3, Matchday 24 vs Atlanta United
Low: 4.6, Matchday 1 vs Charlotte FC
POTM: 1
• James Sands (7.3) – 6.3
Appearances: 38
Starts: 38
High: 9.1, Matchday 30 vs Inter Miami
Low: 3.0, Matchday 2 vs St. Louis City
POTM: 1
• Hannes Wolf (7.1) – 6.1
Appearances: 42
Starts: 39
High: 8.8, Matchday 14 vs New York Red Bulls
Low: 3.6, Matchday 29 vs Philadelphia Union
POTM: 3
• Andrés Perea (6.7) – 6.1
Apps: 32
Starts: 13
High: 8.7, Matchday 31 vs New York Red Bulls
Low: 4.3, Matchday 23 vs Chicago Fire
POTM: 0
• Tayvon Gray (6.9) – 6.1
Appearances: 29
Starts: 19
High: 9.1, Matchday 20 vs Orlando City and Matchday 31 vs New York Red Bulls
Low: 3.3, Matchday 29 vs Philadelphia Union
POTM: 1
• Christian McFarlane (6.6) – 6.1
Apps: 13
Starts: 8
High: 7.4, Leagues Cup Group Stage vs Querétaro FC
Low: 2.9, Matchday 27 vs Columbus Crew
POTM: 0
• Keaton Parks (7.0) – 6.0
Apps: 40
Starts: 37
High: 8.3, Matchday 14 vs New England Revolution
Low: 3.5, Matchday 29 vs Philadelphia Union
POTM: 2
• Kevin O’Toole (6.9) – 5.9
Apps: 36
Starts: 32
High: 8.1, Matchday 31 vs New York Red Bulls
Low: 3.7, Matchday 1 vs Charlotte FC
POTM: 1
• Birk Risa (6.6) – 5.9
Apps: 32
Starts: 29
High: 7.5, Matchday 14 vs New York Red Bulls
Low: 4.6, Matchday 7 vs Atlanta United
POTM: 0
• Justin Haak (7.1) – 5.9
Apps: 22
Starts: 11
High: 8.1, MLS Cup Playoffs Round One, Game 3 vs FC Cincinnati
Low: 3.7, Matchday 3 vs Portland Timbers
POTM: 1
• Mitja Ilenič (6.7) – 5.6
Apps: 29
Starts: 21
High: 8.3, Matchday 32 vs FC Cincinnati
Low: 3.3, Matchday 17 vs Columbus Crews
POTM: 0
• AgustĂn Ojeda (6.8) – 5.6
Apps: 24
Starts: 11
High: 7.8, Matchday 8 vs New England Revolution
Low: 3.3, Matchday 29 vs Philadelphia Union
POTM: 0
• Strahinja Tanasijević (6.5) – 5.6
Apps: 18
Starts: 12
High: 6.9, Matchday 21 vs CF Montréal
Low: 3.6, Matchday 29 vs Philadelphia Union
POTM: 0
• Julián Fernández (6.5) – 5.5
Appearances: 26
Starts: 7
High: 7.8, Matchday 8 vs New England Revolution
Low: 3.8, Matchday 34 vs CF Montréal
POTM: 0
• Andres Jasson* (6.8) – 5.4
Appearances: 4
Starts: 2
High: 6.0, Matchday 4 vs Toronto FC
Low: 4.8, Matchday 5 vs FC Cincinnati
POTM: 0
• Mounsef Bakrar (6.5) – 5.2
App: 36
Starts: 15
High: 8.5, Matchday 14 vs New York Red Bulls
Low: 2.1, Matchday 19 vs Nashville SC
POTM: 0
• Jovan Mijatović (6.3) – 4.6
Apps: 15
Starts: 4
High: 5.6, Matchday 14 vs New York Red Bulls
Low: 2.9, Matchday 19 vs Nashville SC
POTM: 0
• Luis Barraza* (4.6) – 4.4
Appearances: 3
Starts: 2
High: 7.4, Leagues Cup Group Stage vs Querétaro FC
Low: 2.9, Matchday 27 vs Columbus Crew
POTM: 1
* No longer with NYCFC
Raquinho – 9.4
Apps: 1
Nick Cushing – 5.3
High: 8.5, Matchday 31 vs New York Red Bulls
Low: 1.6, Matchday 3 vs Portland Timbers
Head Referees – 5.0
High: Matchday 14 vs New York Red Bulls
Low: Matchday 17 vs Columbus Crew
POTM: 1
would be fun asking guys a post-season rating (rating after chilldown) and compare it to this season-average numbers, wink wink?
You mean player ratings that are about the feels? Hmmm.In truth, this is an accurate measure of what fans were feeling in the hours after a game. Keaton, Sands, Tayvon, Mitja, O’Toole, Haak were often treated a little harshly imo, but we faithfully posted the ratings given by our readers. The passion and high expectations are understandable, but sometimes our readers couldn’t see the positives of a performance if the team’s result wasn’t great.
@oliver oh didn’t meant that this’d be inaccurate or any kind of distrust or doubt about its credibility. thought it’d be just ‘interesting’ to see how ppl think ‘now’ about the entire season as a whole, long after the end of the season. just for fun. it’s like we—including myself—were so emotionally ‘reacting’ to the result day by day, game by game in the season, then all of sudden acting like chill + objective, you know. 🙂
No doubt everybody would be kinder now, which is the value of these numbers here. They show how everybody was feeling in the thick of it.
There aren’t any positives if the result isn’t positive. There aren’t any moral victories in professional sports.