With the 3-1 win over Colorado Rapids on Saturday night, New York City FC compiled a record of 3W-1D-0L through the first four games of 2026. Not only does that match the club’s best start to a season, equaling the record set in 2018, it gives Head Coach Pascal Jansen 20 regular-season wins since he took over the team last year.
With that result, Jansen becomes the fastest head coach to reach 20 league wins in New York City history, reaching that milestone in 37 games.* He edges out Ronny Deila, who needed 38 games, and is comfortably ahead of Patrick Vieira (43 games) and Domé Torrent (44 games). As for Nick Cushing, he needed 64 games to get to 20 wins.
New York City FC | First 20 Wins by Head Coach
| Head Coach | Years | GP | W | D | L | Win % | GF | GA | GD | GF/G | GA/G | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pascal Jansen | 2025-26 | 37 | 20 | 6 | 11 | 54.1% | 61 | 46 | 15 | 1.65 | 1.24 | 1.78 |
| Ronny Deila | 2020-21 | 38 | 20 | 5 | 13 | 52.6% | 67 | 41 | 28 | 1.76 | 1.08 | 1.71 |
| Patrick Vieira | 2016-17 | 43 | 20 | 11 | 12 | 46.5% | 79 | 67 | 12 | 1.84 | 1.56 | 1.65 |
| Domé Torrent | 2018-19 | 44 | 20 | 12 | 12 | 45.5% | 75 | 53 | 22 | 1.70 | 1.20 | 1.64 |
| Nick Cushing | 2022-24 | 64 | 20 | 21 | 23 | 31.3% | 76 | 79 | -3 | 1.19 | 1.23 | 1.27 |
Even more impressive, Jansen achieved this feat with a squad that has been missing key players for the majority of his time in New York City. Last year, the NYCFC midfield was incomplete until the signings of Aiden O’Neill, who made his debut in Matchday 12 (which, coincidentally, was overseen by Mehdi Ballouchy while Jansen was away because of a personal matter), and Nico Fernández Mercau, who first played in Matchday 24. This year, New York City is playing without a true No 9 after Alonso Martínez was injured at the end of 2025, and the deal to bring in Moussa Sylla collapsed before the start of the season.
In other words, out of the 37 games Jansen needed to compile his club-best record, he had a complete roster just 11 times.
Andrew Leigh
New York City’s record during that 11-game run was 7W-0D-4L, with four of those wins coming on the road. That works out to a win rate of 63.6% and 1.91 points per game.
New York City FC | Record by Head Coach, MLS Regular Season
| Name | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % | GF/G | GA/G | PTS | PPG | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pascal Jansen | 2025- | 37 | 20 | 6 | 11 | 61 | 46 | 15 | 54.1% | 1.6 | 1.2 | 66 | 1.78 |
| Mehdi Ballouchy | 2025 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0.0% | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Nick Cushing | 2022-24 | 89 | 31 | 27 | 31 | 121 | 119 | 2 | 34.8% | 1.4 | 1.3 | 120 | 1.35 |
| Ronny Deila | 2020-22 | 70 | 34 | 14 | 22 | 118 | 71 | 47 | 48.6% | 1.7 | 1.0 | 116 | 1.66 |
| Domé Torrent | 2018-19 | 53 | 26 | 14 | 13 | 92 | 67 | 25 | 49.1% | 1.7 | 1.3 | 92 | 1.74 |
| Patrick Vieira | 2016-18 | 83 | 39 | 22 | 22 | 148 | 120 | 28 | 47.0% | 1.8 | 1.4 | 139 | 1.67 |
| Jason Kreis | 2015 | 34 | 10 | 7 | 17 | 49 | 58 | -9 | 29.4% | 1.4 | 1.7 | 37 | 1.09 |
| Total | 367 | 160 | 90 | 117 | 589 | 482 | 107 | 43.6% | 1.6 | 1.3 | 570 | 1.55 |
Jansen now has a club-best overall win rate of 54.1% and 1.78 points per game. That puts him just ahead of Torrent’s 49.1% win rate and 1.74 points per game he averaged during his 53-game tenure in 2018 and 2019. Under Torrent, the team finished in 3rd Place in the Eastern Conference in 2018, and set a club record with 64 points in 2019, when they finished 1st Place in the East and 2nd Place overall.
And yet, Jansen isn’t meeting his own standards. He might be ahead of other NYCFC head coaches, but he is well behind the records he put up while at Fernecváros TC in Hungary’s Nemzeti Bajnokság and AZ Alkmaar in Holland’s Eredivisie.
In Jansen’s short time at Fernecváros, when he oversaw just 16 league games, he won 10 of those. That works out to a win rate of 62.5% and 2.1 points per game. In his much longer tenure at AZ Alkmaar, Jansen oversaw 114 league games, winning 67 of those for a win rate of 58.8% and 1.9 points per game. Jansen’s squads at both of those clubs also scored more goals per game (1.8 at Fernecváros and 2.0 at AZ vs 1.6 at New York City), and had fewer goals allowed (1.0 at Fernecváros and 1.1 at AZ vs 1.2 at New York City).
Were the rosters at Fernecváros and AZ more complete, with an intact front line, midfield, and defense? The numbers he put up then are more in line with the 63.6% win rate and 1.91 points per game that Jansen enjoyed with NYCFC during that 11-game run when the team’s squad was fully intact and healthy.
That’s no longer the case as we await a new No 9 — or not. No matter: Jansen continues to set a new standard of excellence among New York City’s head coaches. It’s even more to his credit that he can accomplish this while piecing together lineups from rosters filled with holes.
* Assistant Coach Mehdi Ballouchy oversaw the 1-0 loss to CF Montréal in Matchday 12 while Pascal Jansen was away for a personal matter
poor Mehdi how he’s on the chart lol