Knock Yourself Out
Colorado’s possession philosophy didn’t survive contact with Jansen’s press.
“We have to be the dominant force. And obviously, the best method to do that, in my mind, is to have the ball. So every single game, we’re going to try and dominate possession.” New head coach Matt Wells vowed to reshape a Colorado Rapids team that had finished 4th-from-bottom in Major League Soccer in futi’s Press-and-Possess style in 2025. Four games into the 2026 season, Colorado ranks 6th in MLS with 55.8% possession. Wells built his road lineup against New York City Football Club around a spine that featured Rob Holding and Lucas Herrington in central defense, Wayne Frederick and Hazmat Ojediran in central midfield, and Rafa Navarro and Paxten Aaronson in central attack.
While Wells may have viewed his starting eleven as a blossoming core, NYCFC head coach Pascal Jansen saw an 18-year-old center back (Herrington) and two relative unknowns (Ojediran and Frederick) in central midfield who had never played together before. You want to play possession? Knock yourself out. New York City was happy to concede 59% possession to Colorado but made the Rapids earn every minute of it through a rugged high press that fueled the Pigeons to a 3–1 victory.
Jansen tweaked the high press to incorporate more man marking than is typical, a signature of his coaching going back to AZ Alkmaar, to account for Navarro and Aaronson. Navarro ranks 4th among MLS strikers in passing goals added (g+), and his link-up play is crucial to the Rapids’ buildup. Midfielder Aiden O’Neill shadowed him relentlessly through the defensive half to cut off the link. Aaronson, Colorado’s other danger man, got the same treatment from Kai Trewin. The Australian center back routinely ventured ahead of the backline in pursuit of Aaronson, creating a 3-2-3-2 high pressing shape for the Pigeons.
Trewin’s attachment to Aaronson created the first goal. Wells dropped Ojediran and Frederick on goal kicks, a look the Rapids returned to repeatedly. Aaronson and Navarro started at the halfway line, leaving a vacuum of space between the attacking and defensive groups. Colorado’s attackers and NYCFC’s defenders rushed into the vacuum simultaneously. Under pressure, Holding forced a pass into Aaronson, but Trewin got there first. His interception ricocheted into the box, where Nico Fernández Mercau was waiting. Goalkeeper Nico Hansen, starting for the injured Zack Steffen, saved his first attempt, but Fernández Mercau calmly finished the rebound to break the deadlock.
Before the goal, Navarro and Aaronson started on the halfway line, but Wells shifted them around to confuse NYC’s man marking. Nevertheless, O’Neill and Trewin tagged along, leaving Thiago Martins alone in the middle. Martins held his line, rarely venturing ahead of the ball as Navarro and Aaronson dropped to connect. When Colorado broke the first line of pressure, New York City was exposed, recovering shape and dropping into a 4-4-2 mid-block rather than pressing again.
Jansen bet that Colorado wouldn’t be able to play through pressure. The Rapids created only 0.96 expected goals and struggled under a high press, generating 0.31 interrupting g+ in the attacking half. NYC was most vulnerable immediately after winning the ball — shape loosening in anticipation of possession, only to concede to a counterpress that produced right winger Darren Yapi’s goal just before halftime.
New York City also banked on Wells sticking to his possession-based ideals after halftime — and he obliged. Rather than using Aaronson to pull Trewin out of position and ping balls over left back Kevin O’Toole’s head, the Rapids continued to look for ways to play through the pressure. Frederick and Ted Ku-Dipietro moved forward from the double pivot to overload O’Neill with Navarro. Colorado passed on it anyway, despite Navarro’s visible frustration each time he was ignored in space. Wells did find a solution to free Aaronson from Trewin in the second half, which he described in the post-game press conference (2:25-3:30):
Wells admitted that this progression was the intent in the sequence leading up to Fernandez’s open play goal, but Holding made a poor decision in passing into the pocket. Pinning the goal on Holding diminishes the credit New York City’s defense deserves; an effective high press forces the opponent into rushed, flawed decisions, after all.
The directness of the first goal, though accidental, illustrated how the Pigeons attacked the Colorado defense throughout the game. The Rapids employed a high press of their own, but Jansen was more interested in field position than intricate buildup — striking quickly to reset his press and win the ball in the attacking half. The foul that led to Fernández Mercau’s free-kick goal originated from a quick diagonal to Agustín Ojeda off a defensive-half throw that caught Wells’ defense flat-footed.
Parks wasn’t as striker-ish as he’d been against 10-man Orlando, but advanced regularly into the frontline as a tall target for goalkeeper Matt Freese. Freese was eager to ping it long, even when his only targets were the diminutive front four of Fernandez, Moralez, Ojeda, and Hannes Wolf. The game ranked 3rd in Freese’s NYCFC career in vertical distance per pass and 8th in overall distance per pass. The 86th-minute goal was a microcosm of Jansen’s tactical approach — the Pigeons won a long ball from Freese on the restart after O’Neill pressured the second ball. Trewin, now playing in midfield, played ahead to Moralez, who turned and attacked the backline. with haste. Substitute Talles Magno slipped in behind Holding to finish Moralez’s through ball.
Magno impressed again in his second extended substitute appearance, proving he’s still got all that jazz he showed during his previous NYCFC peak. The Mag9 experiment didn’t work under Nick Cushing, but playing him centrally may function better this time, considering Jansen is already adjusting to “strikerless” lineups anyway. “Jansen shapes his tactics to his roster as readily as he does to the opponent. New York City was fourth in MLS in style variety, and early signs in 2026 point to more of the same. Press and possess one week, launch and squish the next versus Colorado. Gotta keep your opponents on their toes, doing so has New York City Football Club off to its best start since 2018. ❧
Image: John Hoppner, Richard Humphreys, The Boxer