New York City FC closed out the 2026 edition of the Coachella Valley Invitational by losing 2-0 to San Jose Earthquakes, conceding twice in the second half – first to Ousseni Bouda, then Niko Tsakiris (PK) – while never finding a way past Earthquakes goalkeeper Daniel.
More important than any result, given this is preseason, is the fact that numerous New York City players expected to feature in the Starting XI once the 2026 MLS season kicks off next weekend against LA Galaxy got long stretches of game time against San Jose.
A pair of key players made their first starts of the preseason, the Kevin O’Toole positional experimentation by Pascal Jansen reached new heights, and with preseason now over, attention can officially turn to all the matches to come that will now count for something. Read on for four thoughts on what went down during the Coachella finale.
1. Trewin, O’Neill make significant starts
Both of the New York City FC players from Australia were in the Starting XI against San Jose, with midfielder Aiden O’Neill and defender Kai Trewin each getting their first starts of the preseason in what was the finale of preseason.
O’Neill seems past the injury that kept him sidelined for all of the team’s other preseason friendlies, as the midfielder played the first half before making way after halftime. He’ll be a valuable addition to the midfield mix given that Jonny Shore, also out injured this preseason, is still not fully cleared for full training.
Trewin also only played 45 minutes against the Quakes, and he looked bright during a first half that didn’t have much to separate the teams and ended goalless on both sides. Trewin made a key defensive intervention in the game’s opening moments when San Jose found space on a quick counterattack, with the recently-arrived new signing stepping in to intercept the ball and clear danger.
Trewin seemed to perfectly fill the role held by Justin Haak last season, and the team seemed to follow its 2025 pattern of shifting formational shape as the game dictated. When the match began it was a true back-four for NYCFC, with Raul Gustavo playing left-back and Trewin at left-center-back next to Thiago Martins.
Yet as the game progressed, Trewin pushed forward and linked more closely with the midfield duo of O’Toole and O’Neill, while Raul Gustavo, Thiago Martins, and right-back Tayvon Gray hung back and formed a back-three – the positional flexibility offered by players like Trewin, O’Toole, Raul Gustavo, and even Gray, allows New York City to stay fluid and somewhat unpredictable under Pascal Jansen.
2. Quiet attacking afternoon
Alonso MartĂnez isn’t coming back anytime soon, Moussa Sylla is staying in Germany for now, and Talles Magno is injured and out of team training for at least one or two more weeks: The options at center-forward are not what they could be for Pascal Jansen as the season begins, with Nico Fernández Mercau again playing as a “not-quite-No 9” against San Jose.
Andrew Leigh
Inside the first 10 minutes, New York City came into two decent opportunities, the best when an attempted cross was deflected by a San Jose defender and fell favorably to an unmarked Hannes Wolf, but Wolf couldn’t get a shot on target after trying to out-trick the defense.
The scoring chances were minimal for NYCFC, with Fernández Mercau involved in the two best second-half chances the team produced. First in the 55th minute, Nico got his first good look in front of goal, finding an opening and getting a clean shot on target, though with his effort aimed straight at Daniel, who parried the shot away for a corner kick.
Nico later slipped Keaton Parks in on goal for a great scoring chance in the 60th minute, but Daniel made a great kick save to deny Keaton after he tried to roll a low shot past the San Jose keeper.
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It was a nice bit of teammate-assisting for Fernández Mercau, who his coach described as functioning as a “No 9-and-a-half” when he fills the center-forward role for NYCFC, but it didn’t get the ball into the back of the net, something NYCFC struggled with for long stretches of their Coachella stint – they only scored one goal from open play, when Nico tucked that nice finish home in the 1-1 draw with LAFC.
The goals will need to come from somewhere if New York City wants to pick up points at a Top-4 pace this season in the MLS Eastern Conference, and it’s still tough to figure out exactly who that goal source will be as the season begins.
3. The O’Toole position mystery
The closest you will get to a romantic couplet in this Valentine’s Day edition of New York City FC coverage: Where will Kevin O’Toole play/On NYCFC’s opening day?
One of the bigger storylines of preseason has been O’Toole’s frequent usage as a defensive midfielder, with O’Toole saying he loves the position and with Jansen continuing to utilize the usual fullback in the midfield while Aiden O’Neill and Jonny Shore (plus AndrĂ©s Perea) were out injured and while Kai Trewin was yet to join the squad.
O’Toole started next to O’Neill in midfield during the first half, then shifted out to his more familiar left-back while Jansen got another prolonged look at unsigned 2026 MLS SuperDraft pick Kevin Pierre, who formed a midfield partnership with Keaton Parks in the second half.
It wasn’t just central midfielder and left-back in this game for O’Toole, though: He eventually slid back and served as left-center-back alongside Thiago Martins to close out the match, once Nico Cavallo replaced Raul Gustavo and took over as left-back. O’Toole’s inexperience at center-back got exposed on San Jose’s second goal, as Thiago Martins committed a foul to give San Jose a penalty kick by tripping up Ousseni Bouda after the Earthquakes swiftly got behind a reworked NYCFC backline with O’Toole in the center.
With Trewin and O’Neill both available as of this match and Parks appearing to make it through the entirety of preseason healthy, there would seem to be less of a need for O’Toole to fill in as a defensive midfielder when the season begins against the Galaxy.
As a left-back comfortable tucking in centrally and functioning as an extra midfielder, O’Toole can still provide something beyond a more traditional fullback, though it becomes a numbers game when trying to fit all of O’Toole, Raul Gustavo, and Kai Trewin together in the same lineup, if that lineup also is to include the likes of Aiden O’Neill and Keaton Parks. That juggle is Pascal Jansen’s job to figure out, but O’Toole’s positional flexibility gives the coach extra options, and it as always remains a fun mystery how he’ll choose to play it from match to match.
4. Finally, real soccer
With the final whistle blown at exactly 90 minutes, preseason soccer officially ends for another year for New York City FC. It’s not “fake” since they are still competitive matches played for 90 minutes with 22 professional players, but preseason is never a substitute for the “real” thing, when regular-season points are awarded and when the slow march is on toward MLS Cup Playoffs and Supporters’ Shield.
There appeared to be no fresh injury concerns based on the flow of the San Jose match, and Pascal Jansen got plenty of minutes in for his most important expected contributors, so the Coachella Valley Invitational concludes without any major setbacks and as a “Mission: Accomplished,” even if the preseason as a whole featured its share of setbacks and challenges.
The roster feels incomplete due to a mix of long-term injuries, short-term injuries, and failed transfers, but the MLS season doesn’t wait for those kinds of things to be all sorted out.
New York City FC won some of their most high-stakes matches of last season while playing shorthanded due to injuries and/or suspensions, and they’ll now begin the 2026 season hoping they can pull that off once more while finding solutions via players returning to health, or via players from the outside joining the club and bolstering its areas of need.
We need a striker. That much is clear. I would feel awesome about where we are right now had the Moussa Sylla deal worked out, but since it didn’t, we still need that No. 9. I thought Seymour Reid was going to get some healthy run and get the chance to prove he can carry the job until Alonso comes back or we find a more experienced striker on the market. But alas …
Ugh. I have full faith in the lads that they will be able to play some pretty football when the season starts…I have less faith that it will result in the ball in the back of the net. What was so enticing about Syllah was that he loved to shoot and was confident in shooting. We are full up on people who can move the ball into the final third…but then we often stall looking for ways to dribble the ball into goal. Hopefully we can hang in there in the standings until we can find someone to fill Alonso’s shoes till he’s back in form.