New York City FC player ratings are determined by Hudson River Blue readers: Here are your NYCFC player ratings from the late-night 2-0 loss to LA Galaxy out in Carson, California.
Midweek cross-country travel did not agree with New York City FC, with the team looking flat and unthreatening in a 2-0 defeat against LA Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park.
There were not many bright spots on the night for the visiting team. This wasn’t one of the gritty, opportunistic New York City road performances we saw in Toronto or Philadelphia, nor was it a smothering defensive showing like the late 0-1 win in New England.
Instead, NYCFC often looked unable or unwilling to threaten a comfortable, in-control Galaxy, who found their winning goals shortly before and shortly after the halftime interval.
Your player ratings from the underwhelming performance on the West Coast showed frustrations with many players. Two members of the NYCFC Starting XI received ratings in the 3s, while the average rating of all 16 participating players was just 5.5.
Note: FotMob ratings are in parentheses.
Matthew Mangam
Mounsef Bakrar, off 66′ (5.9) – 3.7
Santiago RodrĂguez (6.1) – 6.0
Hannes Wolf, off 66′ (6.4) – 5.5
Malachi Jones, off 78′ (7.1) – 7.7
AndrĂ©s Perea, off 78′ (6.6) – 5.2
James Sands (6.5) – 3.6
Tayvon Gray (6.3) – 5.4
Kevin O’Toole (6.5) – 5.8
Thiago Martins (6.4 ) – 5.5
Birk Risa, off 46′ (6.3) – 4.8
Matt Freese (6.4) – 7.8
Strahinja Tanasijević, on 46′ (6.4) – 5.1
Maxi Morzlez, on 66′ (6.5) – 6.6
Alonso MartĂnez, on 66′ (5.6) – 5.1
Keaton Parks, on 78′ (6.0) – 5.5
Julián Fernández, on 78′ (6.0) – 5.1
Player Spotlight
Strahinja Tanasijević
When you judge him against the type of player he’s ultimately replacing – namely, Tony Alfaro and Vuk Latinovich, the backup central defenders NYCFC has employed in recent seasons – Strahinja Tanasijević is beginning to look like an upgrade.
That was harder to see in the loss to Columbus, with New York City collectively and Tanasijević individually struggled to organize the defensive line. After that game, I focused on the growing importance of having the full trio of Matt Freese, Birk Risa, and Thiago Martins available for selection. That may have been too quick of a judgment of the 27-year-old Serbian center-back who joined New York City in February.
Against the Galaxy, Tanasijević was back on the substitute’s bench with Thiago Martins deemed recovered from his hamstring injury, back in to partner with Birk Risa.
Yet as he was in an unplanned start vs San Jose at Yankee Stadium, Tanasijević was again thrust into action, this time replacing an unwell Birk Risa at halftime.
In that second half, Tanasijević had three clearances and two interceptions, won his lone aerial duel, and shined with his passing accuracy. The defender, according to fbref.com, went 34-for-36 on all pass attempts, a 94.4% completion rate, making him the fifth most accurate passer in the match among players on either team. For the season, Strahinja has completed 86.2% of his 254 attempted passes, behind only Thiago Martins (89.3% completion on 1,026 passes) for passing accuracy among players with over 100 attempted passes.
His play and his minutes have been trending up, though the ratings he’s been getting from our readers remain on the low side. You gave Tanasijević a 5.1 for his second-half performance in LA, following a 5.1 when he started and went (a rougher) 90 minutes vs. Columbus, and a 6.1 for his 90-minute performance in the 5-1 win over the Earthquakes.
Each of those ratings was significantly lower than what he received from FotMob: 6.7 vs. the Galaxy, 6.4 vs. the Crew, and 7.0 vs. the Quakes, respectively. Perhaps the memory of his actions toward Sean Johnson in the post-match incident in Toronto, and his physical play style, have clouded some judgment of a player still early into his NYCFC career?
Nick Cushing — 5.3
His first-choice backline returned to health and availability, but it didn’t last long, and it didn’t make enough of a difference to earn a result. Cushing’s constant shuffling of players in his attack also didn’t work vs the Galaxy.
The New York City coach turned back to Mounsef Bakrar at striker after starting Alonso MartĂnez vs. Columbus, but his Algerian No 9 produced a dud of a performance, earning the game’s second-lowest rating (3.7) for putting zero shots on target out of his two attempts while also having the fewest touches (15, according to fbref.com) of any member of the NYCFC Starting XI.
Cushing’s score isn’t as low as it has been following some other defeats, perhaps a sign of some goodwill accumulated during the recent stretch of eight wins from nine games played.
Rubiel Vazquez — 6.1
A more experienced ref can make a difference. Vazquez had things under control and balanced on the night, the teams were almost equal in yellow cards and fouls, with neither number too inflated. It was a far cry from the VAR-filled, indecisive mess that the match against Columbus became under the handling of a referee working his ninth career MLS match. By contrast, the Galaxy-NYCFC game was Vazquez’s 105th, and it showed.
Player of the Match
Malachi Jones
No one scored for NYCFC, but Jones was responsible for starting and almost finishing their best chance.
The 20-year-old MLS rookie out of Lipscomb decisively won the ball from a John McCarthy goal kick and headed it down to Mounsef Bakrar, which started a move forward that saw Santiago RodrĂguez eventually play a smart pass into an onrushing Jones’s path.
Jones couldn’t beat McCarthy in the end, the Galaxy keeper pawing the winger’s shot away from the goal. Yet it was a rare bright piece of attacking play from NYCFC in an otherwise quiet game, and another indication of Jones’s high potential, revealing itself in glimpses throughout his first professional season.
This was an effective two-way performance, with Jones leading all New York City players with four tackles. Jones was active, aggressive, and largely effective, something you could not say for many of the other players in New York City shirts in California.
You rated him a 7.7, slightly more generous than the 7.0 rating Jones got from FotMob. AgustĂn Ojeda has earned more starts (seven for Ojeda, three for Jones) as the other, non-Hannes Wolf attacking wide player in Nick Cushing’s Starting XI. Hard-working shifts like the one Jones put in against the Galaxy could help the MLS newcomer earn even more, longer looks from Cushing.
