The New York City Football Club had an offensive outburst they haven’t seen in over a year as 4 different players fired off 5 goals in a huge shut out win at “home” against Toronto at Red Bull Arena. On a night which saw former NYCFC darling/captain Sean Johnson return to the area to face his old club for the first time since signing with Toronto the team and the fans showed no mercy making impressive work against the Ontario club.
NYCFC offensive outburst hit paydirt at the 30th minute when a corner found Captain Maxime Chanot who’s header to the right of Johnson for the 1-0 score. 15 minutes later new striker (and definitely upcoming fan favorite) Mounsef Bakrar passed to Santiago Rodriguez who’s shot was saved by Johnson only to find the rebound reaching Bakrar who’s right footed kick made it a 2-0 score and giving me this pic as head coach Nick Cushing decided to fist pump for the camera:
The scoring for the first half wasn’t complete as Santiago Rodriguez picked up a turnover and took it himself down the pitch and scored on a Toronto deflection up and over Sean Johnson for the 3-0 score. Head to the 3:14 mark of the highlight video to hear the Spanish broadcasters (and another reason why I straight love Spanish broadcasts of soccer).
Despite the strong first half, Cushing said there was room for improvement:
“I was frustrated at halftime, because tactically I didn’t think we were great today. I didn’t think we played so well in the first half, and we were up three-nil. Maybe this is the way the game works, but I thought we turned the ball over at times. We gave away two goal chances at the back post, and I was frustrated because I see the opportunities over there, today to be dominant with the tactical setup that we have and made a few tweaks at halftime.”
Buy NYCFC Merch Here!The scoring continued in the second half as Andres Jasson added one at 56 and Rodriguez a second at the 75 minute mark to complete the 5-0 rout. While technically the team isn’t moving onto the next round until the match between Atlas and Toronto finishes on Sunday, Toronto would have to not only win in regulation, but have a goal differential higher than NYCFC’s 4, meaning they’d have to win by 9 to force the Cityzens out of the next round. Not even Messi could pull that off. If you want player reactions, I recorded a couple below:
5 NOTES:
1) The boobirds were out in forced against their former goalkeeper Sean Johnson, booing him nearly every time he touched the ball during the match. Much of the fans angst stemmed from Johnson’s comments on playing in a real stadium (as opposed to NYCFC’s currently nomadic approach).
2) This was the first time since April 2022 that NYCFC scored 5 goals, in a 5-4 win over ironically enough Toronto. The match was partially memorable as then head coach Ronny Delia mentioning he preferred to win 5-4 over 1-0. It was also the first time the club scored 5 at Red Bull Arena.
3) Presuming that NYCFC moves onto the next round, the single elimination matchup will be between August 2-4.
4) This match against Toronto brings the club’s record to 8-9-7 (W-L-D) against the Reds and 2-2-2 in their last 6.
5) This match was Matt Freese’s first win with the club as well as his first clean sheet.
About the author – Scott Churchson has been an actor in every way for the past 13 years, from BG to stand in to stunts and principal, a sports writer for the past 4 and is one of the people that created Stream Punk Entertainment. He’s married to a veterinarian, has a cat with three working legs, a mother-in-law who just moved in and is just a simple man trying to make his way in the universe.
