New York City FC player ratings are determined by you, the Hudson River Blue readers: Here are the NYCFC player ratings from the impressive 1-0 road win over the now-former MLS Eastern Conference leaders, FC Cincinnati.
New York City FC went to Cincinnati and earned their best away win of the season on Matchday 26, defeating FC Cincinnati 1-0 and earning some of the highest individual numbers seen this season in your player ratings.
The Starting XI averaged a 7.6 rating, and with the three substitutes used by Pascal Jansen added, the whole squad averaged a 7.4 rating, the highest team-wide average reached so far this season. We have you rate Pascal Jansen after every match, too, and the NYCFC Head Coach earned his highest rating of the season for his decision-making in the win in Ohio.
You really liked what you saw at TQL Stadium, and you especially liked what you saw from a new-ish player who earned his first Player of the Match honor since joining the club earlier this season.
Before dissecting what made the Man from Down Under the standout star from the 1-0 win despite not finding the back of the net and not officially tallying an assist, we also spotlight the latest match-winning performance from NYCFC’s striker and leading goal scorer.
Note: FotMob ratings are in parentheses.
Alonso MartĂnez (8.5) – 8.3
Hannes Wolf, off 61′ (7.1) – 6.5
Nico Fernández Mercau (6.9) – 7.1
Maxi Moralez, off 81′ (8.0) – 8.0
AndrĂ©s Perea, off 43′ (7.0) – 6.2
Aiden O’Neill (8.1) – 8.8
Kevin O’Toole (6.8) – 7.3
Justin Haak (7.1) – 7.8
Thiago Martins (7.5) – 8.1
Tayvon Gray (7.8) – 7.0
Matt Freese (8.2) – 8.6
Jonny Shore, on 43′ (6.9) – 7.5
AgustĂn Ojeda, on 61′ (6.2) – 7.1
Julián Fernández, on 81′ (6.5) – 6.4
Player Spotlight
Alonso MartĂnez
One of Alonso MartĂnez or Cincinnati striker KĂ©vin Denkey felt likely to decide this match. The two strikers entered their clash at TQL Stadium tied for the most game-winning goals scored in MLS this season, with both players also on 13 goals scored in MLS this season.
This battle of the strikers was won decisively by MartĂnez, who posed more problems for the Cincy back line and scored yet another match-winning goal in the second half, a week after he beat Nashville with a strike late at Yankee Stadium.
MartĂnez looked dangerous from early into proceedings in Cincinnati, blasting a strike from distance off the inside of the post in the 31st minute. He’d finally get the breakthrough in the second half when his midfield teammates Aiden O’Neill and Maxi Moralez played through the Cincinnati defense and played MartĂnez in on Roman Celentano’s goal.
He had work to do when coming into possession after Maxi picked him out, but MartĂnez’s first touch was perfectly weighted and helped put him past three Cincinnati defenders and in position to poke his shot under Celentano to deliver the match’s one and only goal.
MartĂnez has now scored in four consecutive appearances for NYCFC across all competitions. Since he returned to action for New York City following his stint leading Costa Rica in the Concacaf Gold Cup earlier this summer, he has eight goals and one assist in 10 matches played. He’s up to 16 goals in all competitions and 14 in MLS, putting him in 7th Place on the Golden Boot leaderboard. He continues to climb the all-time NYCFC goals standings, as the strike vs Cincinnati was his 30th, putting him third behind Taty Castellanos (50) and David Villa (77).
Pascal Jansen – 8.6
Jansen seems to have settled on his preferred lineup and rotation, as this was the second straight match in which he only made three substitutions, and one of those was out of injury necessity when AndrĂ©s Perea went down in the first half. His trusted core of players identified, Jansen seems to be getting his team past their early-season struggles when playing away from home. Since losing at Charlotte FC to open the season-long four-match road trip on July 12, NYCFC is unbeaten with a record of 3W-1D-0L in their last four away matches (not counting the fact that they were the “away” team vs. Deportivo Toluca FC in the Leagues Cup at Yankee Stadium).
The trend of New York City wilting outside of Yankee Stadium or Citi Field has changed this summer, though what’s been consistent all year: Pascal Jansen’s team gives the top sides in the Eastern Conference nightmares. NYCFC is undefeated in 2025 in all games played against Philadelphia Union, FC Cincinnati, Nashville SC, Orlando City SC, Inter Miami CF, and Columbus Crew.
Their combined record against all the teams currently above them in the Eastern Conference table stands at 6W-3D-1L, with the lone loss against that scorching-hot Charlotte team that’s won seven consecutive MLS games beginning with their win over NYCFC on July 12. Jansen has molded this team into an extremely tough one to beat, and the win at Cincinnati added to their impressive results against teams you’d consider to be NYCFC’s biggest playoff rivals.
Victor Rivas – 6.6
Player of the Match
Aiden O’Neill
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! New York City FC’s first Australian footballer earns his first Player of the Match nod after running the show in the midfield against Cincinnati. The 8.8 rating you gave O’Neill is his highest number since joining New York City in May – even FotMob had O’Neill rated at 8.1, the highest number he’s earned from their algorithm for a performance since coming to the United States.
O’Neill has been a constant in Pascal Jansen’s midfield since arriving, but his contributions haven’t always been as clear to see as they were against Cincinnati. In back-to-back matches going back to the Nashville win, O’Neill has seemingly been everywhere in that midfield, winning important tackles and operating as a tidy, steady presence when passing the ball around while NYCFC is in possession.
His strengths as a tackler and as a short- and medium-length-passer were on full display at TQL Stadium. The move for the match-winning goal from Alonso MartĂnez began with O’Neill latching onto an errant long pass from Cincinnati’s defense, then instinctively splitting Cincinnati’s lines with a forward pass to the feet of Maxi Moralez. It was akin to how O’Neill reclaimed possession from Hany Mukhtar and picked out Maxi Moralez in the build-up to last weekend’s match-winning Alonso MartĂnez goal against Nashville.
He’s only got a little over 1,000 minutes of MLS game time under his belt, but O’Neill is proving to be an elite tackler in the midfield. He’s in the 92nd percentile of MLS midfielders with 1.91 tackles won per 90 minutes, and in the 93rd percentile of midfielders thanks to tackling 66.7% of attempted dribblers he’s come up against, all per FBref.com’s scouting report.
His “hockey assist” on the Alonso goal was vital to NYCFC earning three points, but he also won four tackles in this match, the most of any player on either team. O’Neill also had the most pass completions and pass attempts of any NYCFC player, going 66-for-71 (93% completion rate) while pulling the strings as a deep-lying midfielder. O’Neill had 10 ball recoveries, led NYCFC with 82 touches of the ball, and even chipped in by blocking a shot attempt.
This was the most complete performance of O’Neill’s New York City FC career, and it came at an important moment, given another one of the team’s relid-upon midfielders, AndrĂ©s Perea, went down with an injury late in the first half and had to be replaced by Jonny Shore at the 43rd minute. Replacing missing midfielders is nothing new for New York City this season, as they’ve at various times been without Perea and Keaton Parks through injury – so it’s been incredibly important to have a player of O’Neill’s quality available to step into that midfield.
The latest disruption to the midfield didn’t hamper O’Neill or NYCFC, and back-to-back strong showings from the Aussie have helped put six hugely important points on the board for his team, and finally got him some extra recognition as your Player of the Match.
