New York City FC just earned its most dramatic win of the season to date, rallying late to earn a 2-1 road win over Orlando City SC on Matchday 22.
This looked to be heading toward a 1-0 Orlando win, but an own goal drew NYCFC level in the 87th minute, and Alonso Martínez scored a dramatic match-winner at 90'+1' after springing out on a breakaway.
It was a resilient, late comeback on a hot and humid night in Central Florida for Pascal Jansen's team. Here are 4 Thoughts on all that went down in this big road result for New York City FC.
Hudson River Blue Staff
1. Rope-a-dope works
There's a collective wait to see a different kind of performance out of New York City FC when they play away from home. Pascal Jansen has talked a lot this season of wanting his team to be more intense, to adopt that "bulletproof mindset," to feel like they can win in any stadium. Yet their 2025 away games have generally been struggles and slogs, and the midweek trip to Orlando felt like more of the same – until it very much didn't, late in the second half, when New York City turned the result on its head after trailing for the vast majority of this match.
Orlando attempted 14 shots and put four on target in the first half alone, while New York City had three attempts though with zero of those attempts testing Pedro Gallese in Orlando's goal. The home side was camped out in the attacking third, attempting eight corner kicks in the opening 45 minutes, with Matt Freese the only real standout of the half for New York City, as the goalkeeper made four saves and was the reason the deficit stayed at one goal come halftime.
New York City didn't get a shot on target until the 53rd minute and yet still hung around in this game long enough to totally swing things late on. Orlando should rue not getting another one past Freese, because once Orlando clanged in an own goal to draw NYCFC level, the life seemed to get sucked out of the home team. Alonso Martínez pounced opportunistically in stoppage time and got free on a breakaway to score NYCFC's second and give them just their second road win of the season, capping a true "tale of two halves" performance.
The team looked dead on its feet during the opening 45 minutes but gradually put more and more pressure on Orlando's tenuous one-goal lead in the second half, and ultimately got rewarded late on when Orlando's tired legs gave out and they struck for the equalizing and winning goals. A rope-a-dope performance that might make Muhammad Ali proud.
2. Alonso Martínez rights himself post-Gold Cup
That Designated Player trio for Orlando was everywhere in the dangerous attacking positions in this match, but the same could not be said most of the night for New York City's line-leading striker, Alonso Martínez. The biggest talking point from his night looked like it was going to be his biggest miss, coming in the 63rd minute when he redirected a perfect low cross from Andrés Perea not into the net, which was wide open to him, but off the post.
The Orlando game looked headed toward being a third straight underwhelming performances with NYCFC for Martínez since he made it back from Costa Rica national team duty after helping Los Ticos reach the quarterfinals of the Concacaf Gold Cup. He hadn't found the back of the net for NYCFC since the May 25 home win over Chicago Fire FC, a stretch of four straight goalless MLS games – but he was just saving his best for when the team absolutely needed him to find a match-winner at the death.
Martínez hasn't gotten the service of late from his teammates, but he's still become the kind of striker that can pop up in one instant and score a hugely important goal. Questions will remain after this game regarding how consistent he can be, but he still was in the right place at the right time to score the biggest goal of the season.
3. A DP difference
Orlando City has the most productive Designated Player trio in Major League Soccer this season, while New York City will spend most of this season with just one DP on the roster, and he's a center-back. The contrast in how the teams were built was evident during the moments of this match when NYCFC struggled to create chances for itself and really put Pedro Gallese under pressure.
Martin Ojeda got the "secondary assist" on Robin Jansson's opening goal to reach the 10 goals, 10 assist milestone by MLS standards. Ojeda has company as a high-paid Orlando contributor, as Marco Pasalic has 10 goals and four assists, while Luis Muriel has six goals and four assists. The Designated Players give Orlando its consistent attacking threat, helping the Lions rank as the second-highest scoring team in the Eastern Conference.
New York City's attack relies on non-DP standouts like Hannes Wolf and Alonso Martínez, while hoping to get some form of contribution from the rest of a group that includes Maxi Moralez, Julián Fernández, and Agustín Ojeda.
It's a mix that hasn't created anything close to a consistent attack this season, and looks too reliant on the U22 Initiative players who have shown themselves to be inconsistent and largely not ready to be match-after-match difference makers in MLS.
While the team has done enough to hang around the playoff places by balancing their poor road form out with generally excellent home form, New York City's attack will be desperately hoping the arrival of an offensive-minded Designated Player in Nico Fernández – and maybe the eventual return from injury of Keaton Parks, a DP-like influence currently missing from the midfield – can help make them a more consistently dangerous team in front of goal. They got a win in the end in Orlando, but it wasn't a performance to write home about for the team's attacking players, save for Alonso Martínez's dramatic finish.
Oliver Strand
4. A road breakthrough
The road records for New York City in recent years has been abysmal, and given how this four-match road trip started in Charlotte, with another flat and goalless away performance, confidence was not high heading into Orlando.
The nature of this comeback win should do wonders for New York City's players as they face another quick turnaround for the trip to face Sporting Kansas City this Saturday, and for the road trip-closing match away to FC Dallas the following Friday night.
Getting a positive win like this, and in stoppage time after trailing for most of the match in a humidity-soaked match played on short rest, should alleviate any of the simmering pressures that might have been bubbling around the team knowing it hadn't won on the road save for the trip north to face Toronto FC on the windiest day imaginable. That vibe might shift again if the performances in Kansas and Dallas are subpar, but getting this comeback victory in Orlando should lift a weight off the collective shoulders of Pascal Jansen's team.
