New York City FC player ratings are determined by Hudson River Blue readers: Here are your NYCFC player ratings after out a tense but deserved 2-3 road win over the always-tough Philadelphia Union.
New York City followed up their scrappy 2-3 win in Toronto on Saturday with a tense 1-2 win in Philadelphia on Wednesday night. You read that right: The club that couldn’t shoot straight in 2023 just logged two consecutive road wins against tough opponents on short rest.
Your ratings aren’t quite as glowing as they were after the Toronto FC game. Maybe it’s because NYCFC dodged a bullet by walking away with a win over a Philadelphia Union that were more than capable of grabbing a result, and even earning all three points.
But a road win is a road win, and this rotated side did what was needed to beat Philadelphia for the first time since 2021. The youngest squad in MLS is starting to gel, and getting better with every game. Players such as Hannes Wolf and Matt Freese are emerging as legitimate stars in the league — but even they can’t compete with Raquinho, the raccoon that that stole the show.
Note: FotMob ratings are in parentheses.
Andrew Leigh
Alonso Martínez, off 68′ (7.3) – 7.7
Santiago Rodríguez , off 76′ (6.9) – 7.5
Hannes Wolf, off 90′ (8.4) – 8.5
Agustín Ojeda, off 68′ (6.8) – 6.3
Raquinho, off 23′ (NR) – 9.4
Keaton Parks (6.9) – 6.4
Andrés Perea (7.3) – 7.4
Kevin O’Toole (7.5) – 7.0
Mitja Ilenič, off 88′ (6.8) – 6.0
Thiago Martins (6.7) – 7.4
Birk Risa (6.7) – 7.1
Matt Freese (6.9) – 8.7
Mounsef Bakrar, on 68′ (6.3) – 5.4
Malachi Jones, on 68′ (6.7) – 7.2
Justin Haak, on 76′ (6.2) – 5.8
Tayvon Gray, on 88′ (NR) – 5.8
Woodland Creature Spotlight
Raquinho
Let’s get one thing straight: Raquinho, the raccoon who made international news after a memorable run of play in the first half, is with New York City. He’s small, fast, and technical, and it took four Philadelphia staff almost three minutes to contain him.
RACCOON ON THE FIELD!!!
MIDWEEK @MLS AT ITS FINEST pic.twitter.com/tO8AJUrkJw
— Andrew Wiebe (@andrew_wiebe) May 16, 2024
You gave Raquinho a 9.4 rating, which is a season-high among all players. That number probably won’t be topped in 2024. Can we just give him the trophy now?
Raquinho didn’t get a FotMob rating because the algorithm doesn’t know joy. But Mark McClure, an executive with MLS, generated a heat map for the four-footed wingback.
Now Topps is in on the action, is issuing a limited-edition trading card — sales will end after May 19, 2024.
𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧 𝗜𝗡: The raccoon who invaded the pitch at yesterday’s game is getting his very own MLS trading card…available now. pic.twitter.com/PvOdRraSCz
— Topps (@Topps) May 16, 2024
But let’s be honest. Raquinho is fun because the game ended with a win for New York City, and not a result that Philadelphia came oh-so-close to stealing.
The raccoon stealing the show in the MLS! #mls pic.twitter.com/YDDUxay8AJ
— 8bit-Football.com (@8bitfootball) May 16, 2024
Oliver Strand
Nick Cushing – 6.8
Another win, another strong rating for the gaffer.
We’d like to point out that head coach Nick Cushing’s surprise selections to the Starting XI are winning games: Alonso Martínez scored against Philadelphia, Andrés Perea and Malachi Jones scored against Toronto. His tactics aren’t just getting points on the road, they’re leading to triumphs against some tough opponents. In case you need to be reminded, this was New York City’s first win over Philadelphia since the Eastern Conference Final in the 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs.
But there are never-Cushingers among you. Shoutout to the HRB reader who gave the head coach a 1.
Lukasz Szpala – 5.8
Player of the Match
Hannes Wolf
After the results were tallied, Wolf edged Freese by just a single vote. It’s easy to understand why it was so close.
At one end of the field, Freese made four saves, and allowed just one goal despite facing an xGOT of 1.70 according to FotMob. That raises his Goals Prevented to 5.1 after 13 games, which puts him third among all MLS goalkeepers according to Opta.
Ice cold as always 🥶
🤝 @EmPowerSolar pic.twitter.com/HE2TjLoxI3
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) May 16, 2024
At the other end of the field, Wolf’s level of play tormented the Union defense. It wasn’t just his exquisite goal, it was his ability to create chaos in the box and find space where none seemed to exist before. It was as if he was playing inside an optical illusion, and when he took the ball alsmot to the painted endline another four inches of grass would suddenly appear.
It’s why Wolf didn’t just earn his second consecutive POTM, he was named to the MLS Team of the Matchday.
But we can’t ignore the goal, which he later admitted in the postgame press conference that it was probably meant to be a pass. No matter, it went in:
Hannes Wolf, oh my! 😮 pic.twitter.com/13wyDAX7BM
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 16, 2024
Wolf’s honest assessment on his free kick goal kept it away from the MLS goal of the wk vote… crazy it was not included in the candidates. 👏👏👏👏👏