New York City vs Puebla player ratings

New York City FC player ratings are determined by you, the Hudson River Blue readers: Here are the NYCFC player ratings from the deflating 3-0 "home" loss at Sports Illustrated Stadium to Club Puebla to open 2025 Leagues Cup's Phase One.

Going into this game, New York City head coach Pascal Jansen told the press that the team would play to win. "The mindset is the same as every game," he said. “We don't make any separate plans going into the MLS or the League Cup, for that matter. We're going to go into this tournament to win the games and get as far as we can."

But he also added a caveat. "However, we are playing a lot of games in a short period of time, so you also have to take care of your players, and that's something we'll take into consideration," he said.

That goes a long way to explain a heavily rotated Starting XI that featured 17-year-old Seymour Reid making his first start as First Team striker, 2025 MLS SuperDraft pick Nico Cavallo at left-back, and as Strahinja Tanasijević at center-back filling in for the injured Thiago Martins.

NYCFC soundly beaten by Puebla in deflating Leagues Cup opener

A rotated New York City FC lineup was second-best all night long at Sports Illustrated Stadium, losing 3-0 to Club Puebla and putting NYCFC’s Leagues Cup hopes on life support.

Hudson River BlueAndrew Leigh

It seemed like a smart move before the start of the match. Puebla was supposed to be New York City's warm-up: An NYCFC that just took seven points from four consecutive away games should be able to handle a struggling Liga MX team playing 2,500 miles from home. But Puebla shredded the inexperienced defense with a goal not two minutes into the game, then added another two on their way to handing NYCFC a 3-0 thumping. It equaled New York City's biggest loss of the season, when the club was shut out 3-0 at home by an underrated Houston Dynamo in The Bronx.

Your ratings reflect the miserable result. No player reached the benchmark score of a 6.0, with Matt Freese logging a team-high 5.9. Never mind that FotMob gave him a team-low 5.0: He's your Player of the Match, although almost half of you didn't bother to cast a vote.

You are forgiven for your apathy. It's not easy to tick a box on a night like this one, when no New York City player distinguished himself.

Note: FotMob ratings are in parentheses.