New York City FC rebound at home, dispatch Toronto FC

In a standalone fixture on a Thursday night, New York City FC exorcised the demons from last week's loss in Montréal, comfortably beating Toronto FC 3-1 at Yankee Stadium.

Hannes Wolf and Mitja Ilenič both contributed with a goal and an assist each as Pascal Jansen's side picked up its second win in three matches.

Despite coming fresh off the termination of Lorenzo Insigne and Fernando Bernadeschi's Designated Player contracts, Toronto FC looked the more threatening side in the early stages.

As New York City grew into the match, the gulf in quality came to be on full display and Jansen's men grabbed their eighth home win of the season to climb, for now, to 6th Place in the Eastern Conference.

Hannes Wolf can't stop scoring (and assisting)

The Wolf of Wall Street is New York City's new top scorer in 2025. Wolf bagged his sixth goal in six games Thursday night, firing home a volley off both posts to open the scoring at Yankee Stadium.

Off the back of an excellent delivery from Ilenič, the "double doink" was the Austrian's ninth goal of the campaign, putting him ahead of Alonso Martinez (with eight) as the club's top goalscorer in 2025.

Despite grabbing the opening goal and the assist to Kevin O'Toole's first strike of the season late in the second half, Wolf wasn't as threatening off the left as many may have expected. The Austrian completed just one of his five attempted dribbles, created a single chance, and was dispossessed a whopping 14 times, the most of any player to feature on the pitch for either side.

Then again, the underlying metrics don't matter as much when you're responsible for two of your club's three goals on the night and take home the Man of the Match award.

Wolf now has nine goals and three assists in 20 MLS matches this season, his highest single-season goal contribution tally since bagging 21 G/A for Red Bull Salzburg in his native Austria during the 2018-2019 campaign.

And with El Cliníco delivering a relatively anonymous performance in his first start since returning from Gold Cup duty with Costa Rica, Wolf continuing his prolific run in front of goal certainly gives fans much more to be excited about as NYCFC prepares for a difficult run of matches on the road in July.

Ilenič helps the defense save face

Mitja Ilenič loves to get forward and contribute to the attack, that much is true. His attacking qualities were on full display against Toronto, grabbing an assist in the first half, and a goal to match in the second, looping one home over Sean Johnson to make it 2-0, with Agustín Ojeda grabbing his first assist of the season.

The Slovenian international spent the better part of June away from New York City FC, starting at right back from Slovenia at the U21 European Championships. Ilenič started all three group stage matches for his nation as Slovenia finished bottom of Group B with just one point.

Despite the early return from international duty, the 20-year-old fullback made sure to announce he was back with a bang. Along with his goal and assist, Ilenič completed 100% of his attempted dribbles and 80% of his passes, while making four clearances and winning 80% of his duels.

The same could not be said for defensive partners, Thiago Martins and Birk Risa, both who had nights well below par vs Toronto. Martins won just 33% of his duels and didn't win a single tackle, while Birk Risa looked off the pace all night long. The Norwegian won just 20% of his duels, didn't attempt a single tackle, and was dribbled past three times, the third of which directly led to Toronto's only goal of the match, an own goal off New York City goalkeeper Tomás Romero.

Risa was then swiftly replaced by Kevin O'Toole, who happened to find the back of the net not three minutes later. On a night where the NYCFC backline, praised for its stability for most of the season, looked shaky against a relatively weak Toronto forward corps, Ilenič proved instrumental in Jansen's side grabbing all three points in the Bronx.

And no, his goal was not on purpose, whether he wants to admit it or not.

Difficult month begins with three points

Coming off of an embarrassing away loss at CF Montréal on Saturday, New York City FC grabbed a much needed three points at home ahead of a month filled with difficult away fixtures.

New York City has four consecutive away matches between now and the start of Leagues Cup play on July 29th, traveling to Charlotte, Orlando, Kansas City and Dallas before returning to the Big Apple by way of Harrison, New Jersey.

It's clear that NYCFC struggles greatly on the road vs when playing at home. In 2025, NYCFC has played 11 matches at home, winning eight and losing three. Jansen's men have scored 19 goals in those matches while conceding just 10, picking up 24 points in the process. That's good for the second best home record in not only the Eastern Conference, but the entire MLS.

On the road, however, its a different story.

Across nine matches away from home this season, NYC has won just one match, while losing four and drawing four, picking up just seven points. Scoring eight goals across those nine matches and conceding 12, that away record is good for 12th in the Eastern Conference, and the 25th in the MLS. A night-and-day difference between playing on the road vs playing at home.

July will certainly prove to be a formidable test for New York City, who as of this writing sit in 6th Place in the Eastern Conference on 31 points. The return of Alonso Martínez from international duty will give Jansen and his staff more firepower at their disposal, but the overall performances will need to continue in a direction like what was on display vs Toronto.

Now past the midway point of the 2025 MLS season, New York City FC finds itself in the thick of a playoff race. One bad month could turn that notion on its head, but as more faces continue to step up and contribute going forward, it could be quite an entertaining summer for the Boys in Blue.