New York City FC player ratings are determined by you, the Hudson River Blue readers: Here are the NYCFC player ratings from the deflating 3-0 “home” loss at Sports Illustrated Stadium to Club Puebla to open 2025 Leagues Cup‘s Phase One.
Going into this game, New York City head coach Pascal Jansen told the press that the team would play to win. “The mindset is the same as every game,” he said. “We don’t make any separate plans going into the MLS or the League Cup, for that matter. We’re going to go into this tournament to win the games and get as far as we can.”
But he also added a caveat. “However, we are playing a lot of games in a short period of time, so you also have to take care of your players, and that’s something we’ll take into consideration,” he said.
That goes a long way to explain a heavily rotated Starting XI that featured 17-year-old Seymour Reid making his first start as First Team striker, 2025 MLS SuperDraft pick Nico Cavallo at left-back, and as Strahinja Tanasijević at center-back filling in for the injured Thiago Martins.
Andrew Leigh
It seemed like a smart move before the start of the match. Puebla was supposed to be New York City’s warm-up: An NYCFC that just took seven points from four consecutive away games should be able to handle a struggling Liga MX team playing 2,500 miles from home. But Puebla shredded the inexperienced defense with a goal not two minutes into the game, then added another two on their way to handing NYCFC a 3-0 thumping. It equaled New York City’s biggest loss of the season, when the club was shut out 3-0 at home by an underrated Houston Dynamo in The Bronx.
Your ratings reflect the miserable result. No player reached the benchmark score of a 6.0, with Matt Freese logging a team-high 5.9. Never mind that FotMob gave him a team-low 5.0: He’s your Player of the Match, although almost half of you didn’t bother to cast a vote.
You are forgiven for your apathy. It’s not easy to tick a box on a night like this one, when no New York City player distinguished himself.
Note: FotMob ratings are in parentheses.
Seymour Reid, off 65′ (5.6) – 4.0
Nico Fernández (6.0) – 5.1
Julián Fernández (7.9) – 4.7
Agustín Ojeda (7.2) – 4.5
Aiden O’Neill, off 60′ (6.3) – 5.1
Jonny Shore, off 46′ (5.9) – 5.4
Nico Cavallo, off 46′ (6.0) – 4.0
Mitja Ilenič, off 60′ (6.4) – 4.7
Justin Haak (6.5) – 5.2
Strahinja Tanasijević (6.0) – 4.6
Matt Freese (5.0) – 5.9
Andrés Perea, on 46′ (7.0) – 5.1
Kevin O’Toole, on 46′ (6.2) – 5.3
Máximo Carrizo, on 60′ (5.9) – 4.9
Tayvon Gray, on 60′ (6.7) – 4.8
Alonso Martínez, on 65′ (6.9) – 5.1
Player Spotlight
Agustín Ojeda
Only two NYCFC players have appeared in all 26 league and non-league games this season: Justin Haak and Agustín Ojeda. Jansen rates Ojeda player, as they say in England, and you can see why: When he’s at his best, the 21-year-old is one of the engines of the attack, a player who can use his speed and skill to find space and take on the opposition one-on-one.
But Ojeda’s overall productivity is so bad it’s astonishing, with zero goals and just one assist through those 26 games. Compare that to 2024, when he logged three goals and two assists after a similar number of games and minutes. More than that, he’s simply not taking chances, logging just one shot on target in 2025 compared to 10 in 2024.
New York City FC | Agustín Ojeda Stats by Year
| Year | G | GS | Min | G | A | SOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 24 | 10 | 985 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2024 | 22 | 11 | 921 | 3 | 2 | 10 |
* MLS league games only
With that in mind, his appearance in the Starting XI gave us reason to hope: Here was an opportunity to open his account this year against a Puebla that the oddsmakers picked to lose. We know how that turned out.
And yet Ojeda was the most creative player on the squad, creating four chances — more than any other player on both teams. HRB readers didn’t think much of his performance, handing him a poor 4.5 rating, but FotMob’s 7.2 was the second-highest on the team after Julián Fernández’s 7.9. Even better, Ojeda placed two shots on target. Finally, he’s taking his chances.
But Ojeda is in danger of slipping into yips territory: This game was supposed to be the night for him to break his scoreless streak, not extend it against the 14th-best team in Liga MX.
Let’s remember to take the good with the bad. Ojeda provided a few moments of danger on an otherwise abysmal night for NYCFC. We’ll likely see him in the Starting XI again on Friday, when New York City host Club León.
Hudson River Blue Staff
Pascal Jansen – 4.8
It’s easy to see why the head coach fielded an inexperienced Starting XI and expected to get a result. But Jansen underestimated a Puebla that exploited NYCFC’s defensive weaknesses, targeting Cavallo on the left and straining the tentative center-back pairing between Haak and Tanasijević.
It’s not Jansen’s fault that Thiago Martins is injured, or that Birk Risa left the club, or that Keaton Parks is sidelined for the rest of the season, or that those who were healthy and on the roster were playing on short rest after winning in Dallas just last Friday. But he’s the head coach, and you hold him responsible for the fortunes of his team.
Iván Barton – 4.3
Player of the Match
Matt Freese
This award is less about the excellence of Freese than the shortage of standout performances on Tuesday night: The goalkeeper wins Player of the Match with just 25% of the vote.
And to think that Alonso Martínez took 100% of the vote last week for the first time this year.
In fact, almost half of you didn’t even bother to register your choice for POTM. Even when the result is bad, there is usually at least one player who tries to step up and salvage the game. No such luck tonight.
Let’s be frank: Freese wasn’t at his best. As we mentioned above, FotMob gave him a team-low 5.0 rating. Freese made two saves and six recoveries, but he allowed three goals — compare that to Puebla’s 32-year-old goalkeeper Jesus Ivan Rodriguez, aka La Araña*, who made five saves and 13 recoveries on his way to earning a clean sheet.
Still, the people have spoken. Freese is the best of the worst on this night, putting up a POTM performance that ranks among the worst of his best.
* “The Spider”
Matthew Mangam
as FotMob pointed out–via some weird measurement called ‘data’—Julian Fernandez should have been deserved the honor of the POM, IMO (i voted for him). unlike other usual nights, he kept his passing ‘progress’ and kept him being dangerous in front with some unusual grit throughout the game. not sure why we are still focused on Ojeda or Freese, in this episode. let’s be practical if we may. ‘potential’ is not a stat, and we’ve been fed up with the blind ‘potential’ in this team. this is not a time for sugarcoat. hope the BIB fights better and more practical against Leon, an objectively better and more dangerous opponent than Puebla.
Fair point, although the emphasis on Ojeda was in no small part because he finally took some shots on target. Maybe this is the lead-up to a breakthrough? So much potential in him and in Fernández, but a rough year for both.
yup. didn’t meant to criticize the POV. still bummed up at the team’s weakness against the wooden spooners now including a liga mx one lol. soccer angels…
Look at that: AO scored! He had a good game overall. Let’s hope it’s the start of something good.
🤪👏👏👏👏👏⚽️