Quicksand
NYCFC’s 1-0 loss to Montréal extends a six-game winless run that has turned the league’s most promising start into its most alarming stumble.
“You’re playing, and you think everything is going fine. Then one thing goes wrong. And then another. And another. You try to fight back. But the harder you fight, the deeper you sink. Until you can’t move, you can’t breathe, because you’re in over your head. Like quicksand.”
Keanu Reeves’ Shane Falco couldn’t have summarized it better. Psychological spirals just happen in sport sometimes, often randomly and without reason. If New York City Football Club were watching this scene from The Replacements right now, they’d be nodding their heads in understanding because they’re living it.
Through four games, the Pigeons looked like one of the league’s best with three wins and a draw. They’ve stumbled into quicksand since. NYCFC is now winless in six league games after a 1-0 road defeat to CF Montréal and have the 8th-worst expected goal differential (xGD) in Major League Soccer (MLS) during that stretch.
The loss is notable for how much deeper it pushes them into the muck, but by itself is unremarkable. Neither team could get into an offensive rhythm, as NYCFC and Montréal combined for a measly 1.46 expected goals (xG), the sixth-lowest mark of the 2026 MLS season.
Philippe Eullaffroy, Montréal’s interim head coach, tried to throw off New York City’s defense by regularly moving his fullbacks inside and his central midfielders outside. The Pigeon defense maintained its discipline despite the rotations, with one big exception that ultimately decided the game. Midfielder Matty Longstaff found space on the left flank to pick out a cross into the six-yard box towards Prince Owusu. The Ghanaian center forward big-brothered Kai Trewin, sparking Brian White-fueled post-traumatic stress disorder and giving Montréal an early lead that they would not relinquish.
Montréal only generated two shots from inside the box, but New York City’s attack failed to do any better. Montréal wingers pressed inside, freeing fullbacks Kevin O’Toole and Tayvon Gray on the flanks but only if NYCFC could move the ball quickly in and out of the midfield, which was the problem. The Pigeons controlled the game from 30’ to halftime, probing this weakness down the left flank, but overall lacked the connections to translate progressions into chances before Montréal could recover into its narrow defensive shape.
New York City finished with 5 shots, the lowest single-game total in team history. Moments of miscommunication or visible frustration were more common than chances. Head coach Pascal Jansen tried to put a jolt into his team with triple-barreled substitutions in the 65th minute, but any gains quickly short-circuited. Fighting to pull his team out of the quicksand, Gray only made them sink deeper. Two yellow cards within five minutes on Montréal winger Iván Jaime, the second after a misplaced pass of his own, resulted in an early shower for Gray and a man disadvantage that nullified any hope that NYC would get a result.
Desperate for a solution to this nightmare run, Jansen doesn’t seem to think the answer will come from the bench. No manager in MLS has rotated his starting eleven less. New York City’s 10 most common outfield starters have logged more combined starts than any team in MLS. Newcomer Arnau Farnos only cracked the starting lineup against Montréal due to a Hannes Wolf injury.
Jansen may be forced to go to his bench out of sheer desperation after the best four-game start in team history has collapsed into the worst ten-game start since 2015. Which stretch represents the true quality of NYCFC? The answer likely lies somewhere in between. Ten games into the season, statistics are becoming significant, and we can take stock of where they stand in MLS as the sample size smoothes out the extremes of red cards, penalties, and the like.
Those numbers indicate the Pigeons are fine. They sit somewhere in the middle of the pack in MLS, ranking 16th in npxG and 10th in npxGA. The defensive indicators align with the aggressive ethos NYCFC has pursued since its founding, outpacing the league average in both average defensive action height (how high the line is) and passes per defensive action (how active they are in defending).
Despite the pedestrian attack, New York City has maintained their style of play with the ball as well. The Pigeons sit comfortably in the top ten in possession (57.7%), field tilt, and passes per possession, indicators of extended ball control in the opponent’s half. The engine of that attack has been Nico Fernández Mercau, who ranks 33rd in npxG+xA and 22nd in offensive net goals added (g+) in MLS, according to American Soccer Analysis. Ironically, Fernández Mercau has been so good that he has singlehandedly elevated NYCFC’s “strikers” into the top ten of net g+ (offensive and defensive) within that position group.
Jansen could only hope that he had two Fernández’s. For as surprisingly good as he has been masquerading as a center forward, New York City could use him deeper to facilitate the offense. Instead, Point Maxi lives on, and while Moralez is still capable of moments of magic, he can’t carry this level of attacking burden at 39 years old like he once could. Moralez is trending towards his second consecutive negative season by net g+.
Aside from the attacking midfield group, an examination of net g+ rankings by position group indicates a strong spine. NYC’s center backs and defensive midfielders join the “strikers” (i.e., Fernández) as top ten units. Net g+ for the wide position groups, wingers, and fullbacks, is less optimistic. For a coach like Jansen who likes to concentrate attacks down the flanks, those units are obvious areas for improvement as they try to dig their way out of this rut by any means possible. Or maybe they just have to burn some incense and exorcise the bad spirits via the power of friendship.
Either way, Jansen certainly strives for his team to be better than fine, but he’d take it right now after NYC have taken two points from their last six games. Digging out of this funk is their priority for now. A Hudson River Derby win in the U.S. Open Cup goes a long way in getting New York City back on track, but the Pigeons must now carry those good vibes over into league play. Getting out of quicksand as deep as they’re in takes more than one game. Shane Falco‘s teammate Clifford Franklin said it best, “Aw, shit yeah. Quicksand’s a scary motha, man.” ❧
Image: Salvador Dalí, Remorse, or Sphinx Embedded in the Sand