New York City vs Montréal payer ratings

New York City FC player ratings are determined by Hudson River Blue readers: Here are your NYCFC player ratings after the 1-0 home loss to CF Montréal in The Bronx. It was only the fourth time that Montréal beat NYCFC, and the first time they did it in New York City since 2015.

It was a classic trap game: After New York City had dispatched a conference-best Cincinnati FC in Queens, surely they could handle a league-worst CF Montréal in The Bronx. But New York City looked less like the team that outplayed Cincy last Sunday than the one that lost to the second-tier Pittsburgh Riverhounds on Wednesday, and struggled from the opening whistle as they went on to lose 1-0.

Your player ratings reflect the poor outing, with most of the squad earning 4s and 5s. The team average is a dismal 4.9, which is the second-worst for a Major League Soccer game this season after the 4.6 average earned after the loss to Minnesota United last month. (Although both of those are behind the 4.2 average from Wednesday, when New York City looked flat in their first non-league competitive match of the year.)

Just like on Wednesday, the only bright spot was found in the goalkeeper's performance — Matt Freese made six saves in Saturday's loss. How did a Montréal that struggled to score this season test Freese so often? You'll have to ask a porous midfield that ceded the run of play to the visitors, and a defense so disorganized that it allowed the league's worst attack to create chance after chance.

Notably, Strahinja Tanasijević came on as a sub in the second half. After the defender earned a straight red card in the loss to Pittsburgh on Wednesday, we thought Tanasijević would be marginalized by head coach Pascal Jansen. Instead, the gaffer brought him on in the 62nd minute, and Tanasijević went on to make four clearances and win 3 duels in his time on the field. That was good for a 6.6 from FotMob — and a 4.4 from our readers.

Note: FotMob ratings are in parentheses.

New York City FC falls short against CF Montréal in the Bronx

NYCFC registered just two shots on target as they were shut out at home by the worst team in the Eastern Conference.

Hudson River BlueAbe Shire