2025 New York City FC Player Preview: Birk Risa

It wasn’t the best season for Birk Risa.

When the left-footed central defender joined New York City FC in July of 2023, he got off to a strong start. Risa made 10 appearances that year, all starts, and quickly became an important part of the team’s buildup play. According to that small sample of games he was in the 79th percentile in Progressive Passes, 77th in Progressive Carries, and 78th in Aerials Won per FBRef.

So what if Risa was down in the 24th percentile for tackles, 14th for interceptions, and 1st for blocks? New York City allowed just 39 goals that year, and was one of the best defenses in the league. Besides, he provided an assist in those 10 games, which put him in the 97th percentile.

Jump to 2024, and his ability to feed the attack faded dramatically. He had zero goal involvements in 29 appearances, was substituted off at the half in two games, and spent the final three games of the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs as an unused substitute after 23-year-old Justin Haak fought his way into the Starting XI.

In other words, 2024 was not good to Risa. What should’ve been a solid season for the defender, who was signed from Norway’s Molde FK for a reported $1 million fee, instead raised more questions than it answered.

New gaffer, who dis?

But 2025 is a new season – and New York City have a new head coach in Pascal Jansen – which gives Risa something of a clean slate. He can spend this preseason focusing on returning to form and gaining Jansen’s trust.

Indeed, Jansen named Risa to the Starting XI for the closed-door friendly last week against LA Galaxy, one of two games he has coached for his new team so far. Notably, Haak also started that game while Thiago Martins, the right-side center-back of choice, was absent.

Maybe Janesn will coax out of Risa the kinds of performances New York City expected when they signed him in 2023. After all, Risa was a key member of the Molde FK squad that played in the 2020-21 Europa League, advancing through the Group Stage and beating 1899 Hoffenheim in the Round of 32 before getting knocked out by Granada CF in the Round of 16.

He started all five of Molde’s games in that Europa League campaign, providing two assists. And he was a beast in the win over Hoffenheim, completing 16 Defensive Actions, including 11 clearances, three blocks, and one interception. Jansen will likely hope to see that version of Risa take the field this year.

Chemical brothers

The fact is, we didn’t see anything close to that kind of Risa in 2024. He started the season as a locked-in member of the Starting XI, but he finished the year with just 25 starts out of a possible 38 games in Major League Soccer. The season ended on a low note. Risa suffered a minor injury during pregame warmups on September 14, and never quite returned to full fitness. He played just five more times the rest of the year, with two starts and three late-game appearances.

But the cracks were showing before then. The chemistry between center-backs is one of the most important relationships a team can have on the field, and there were many times when Risa and Thiago Martins didn’t seem to maintain that important connection. Could that still develop? After all, it took some time before Maxime Chanot and Alexander Callens evolved into one of the most effective center-back pairings in MLS.

Or is Risa not the right partner for Thiago Martins? In a Hudson River Blue roundtable published last month, we noted that the NYCFC defense gave up 49 goals last year — an unusually large number for the team. That’s 10 more than were allowed in 2023, and the third-highest total in team history. Factor in goalkeeper Matt Freese‘s incredible season – and his 8.9 goals prevented, second-best in MLS – and a defense that on paper could have allowed 58 goals looks even more suspect.

Risa and Thiago Martins will need to forge a stronger partnership if the pairing is to work. That is, if Risa is to keep his role as a first-choice center-back.

Let’s get physical

Right now, New York City have as many as five options at Risa’s position.

First, there is Risa himself. He was brought in to be the starter, and as with the seventh-highest guaranteed compensation on the team, he makes a starter’s salary.

Then there is Strahinja Tanasijević, a 27-year-old who was brought in to provide quality depth in the defense. He made 10 starts in MLS play last year, and while he didn’t particularly distinguish himself in some of those appearances –maybe because the right-footed player is out of position on the left – he was a regular starter when he played for Serbian club FK Spartak Subotica before joining New York.

The most intriguing option is Haak. Like Tanasijević, the right-footed Haak is out of position on the left. But there’s a reason why Nick Cushing started him in the 3-1 win over FC Cincinnati in Round One of the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs, then kept him in the Starting XI for the rest of the postseason.

Finally, there are two untested players who just joined the squad. Last month, the club announced the signing of Prince Amponsah, a 21-year-old from Wake Forest who was arguably the best collegiate left-footed central defender in the country. He joins Max Murray, a 21-year-old who stands at 6′ 5″ and just won the national collegiate title with the University of Vermont.

If Risa is to stay ahead of these players on the depth chart, he needs to improve on both sides of the ball.

He must rediscover the touch that made him so attractive to New York City in the first place. Risa was signed, in part, because of his progressive passing and ability to switch the play with the long crosses to the right wing.

And he needs to become a more assertive player. MLS might not inspire awe in European players, pundits, or fans, but it’s a tough league that features large, physical attackers: Christian Benteke and Brandon Vazquez aren’t easy to defend. Risa was sometimes pushed aside last year by players who were bigger and faster than him. That can’t continue.

Maybe he can take a page from the playbook of Haak, who carries about the same build as the 6′ 2″ Risa, but who bulked up in recent years and became a defensive machine when he took the field. Haak was instrumental in neutralizing Cincinnati’s defense in the final two games of Round One, and he was one of the best players on the field when New York City lost to New York Red Bulls in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

If you remember, Red Bulls center-back Sean Nealis had to leave that game with a head injury after he tried to intimidate Haak with a hard challenge. Nealis had spent much of the game bullying New York City attacker Hannes Wolf off the ball, but when he clattered into Haak’s shoulder he went down in a heap.

Could we see that level of intensity from Risa this year? If not, we might see one of the players listed above become the defensive partner of Thiago Martins.

The New York City defense has a bright future. But what Risa’s role will be in the backline remains a question.