The 2025 season ended in ugly fashion for New York City FC and Episode 67 has to start with that ending: The Eastern Conference Final in South Florida, where Inter Miami CF ran wild and beat New York City 5-1 to advance to MLS Cup and kill New York City's cup dream.
Hosts Mark Radigan and John Baney and producer Andrew Leigh review what went wrong for New York City at Chase Stadium, from defensive miscues to wasted scoring opportunities and everything in between. We wonder if the heavy defeat detracts from the rest of the run New York City made through the MLS Cup Playoffs, and reflect on where the team stands now that they've come up short in the postseason.
The Eastern Conference Final didn't work out, but New York City pivoted quickly into offseason action after the defeat, giving us our next big topic of the episode: The club's newly-appointed Sporting Director, Todd Dunivant. We fill you in on some of Dunivant's background as a soccer executive and as a long-tenured, highly successful player in Major League Soccer.
Dunivant has decisions aplenty to make once he's settled into the Sporting Director role, but NYCFC already made a wave of end-of-year roster decisions to kick off the offseason. That means we're spending some time debating who stays or who goes out of the three out-of-contract players New York City is still in negotiations with – Justin Haak, Maxi Moralez, and Andrés Perea.
The 2025 ride has ended, but there's no rest for the weary as the build toward 2026 begins. Listen to this episode in its entirety below or find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Bleav, or wherever you get podcasts.
