New York City FC are at a crossroads in the 2025 season as they look for their first road win against Toronto FC on Saturday afternoon. Looking to avoid their fourth loss in five games, head coach Pascal Jansen is working hard to get the team to find their form and put together more complete performances.
“There’s a moment we switch off,” said Jansen when speaking about the team’s recent loss in New England. “Going into the final part of the game, that’s when you see when we speed up our play and we go with more bodies forward. We go with more conviction in our attacking play. That’s when we get more into their box and control the game.”
While there may have been moments of consistency late in the game, it hasn’t been enough for a team that came into 2025 with high expectations. An Eastern Conference semifinal exit in 2024 to rivals New York Red Bulls, left NYC looking for more. New head coach Jansen entered the picture and was expected to find the missing formula for a young team with a high ceiling. Thus far it has not worked out the way many have expected.
City’s road game against Toronto will be their sixth of the season and yet to be on the winning end. Thus far they have only garnered two points away from the five boroughs, a fact that has not been lost on the team or their coach.
“The attitude in training has been fantastic,” said Jansen. “The mentality also, coming back from a loss, or a loss of points, or winning a game is quite consistent. We put the game to bed on Monday when we had the review. We made some new focus points going into the rest of the week and they’ve been doing that up until today.”
The pressure is certainly there for City who will be playing a Toronto team that is also looking for consistency themselves. Currently languishing 14th place, the Canadian side has yet to win a home game in 2025. Their only win came on the road last week against Real Salt Lake and they are looking to continue that momentum.
For City it will be about making the connection points between the midfield and their star striker Alonso Martinez. Much rides on the team’s ability to deliver service and players like Keaton Parks and Maxi Moralez will have the pressure on them to make sure that happens.
photo by Jordan Bank