Our annual collection of post-mortems rolls on with the vanquished Conference finalists: a New York City FC side that seems to have finally found the right coach, and a record-setting expansion side from San Diego.
You can find…
In we go, examining the seasons of two teams that achieved a ton in 2025, and are well within their rights to dream even bigger in 2026.
2025 in a nutshell
Remember Santiago Rodríguez? Is it weird that his excellent MLS career – which only ended about 12 months ago, and culminated with a near-club-record transfer to then-Copa Libertadores champions Botafogo – seems now like it was from a different lifetime?
Anyway, that’s how the 2025 NYCFC season began: with Rodríguez sold, the managerial post unfilled, and expectations… muddled, I guess? There was hope that they’d go big in replacing their playmaker; it just wasn’t a certainty.
But NYCFC aren’t Miami or LAFC or even Vancouver. There was no big-name replacement immediately in the door for Rodríguez, and the new coach would be little-known Pascal Jansen (in that sense, I guess they're kind of like Vancouver), whose résumé was promising but not exactly overwhelming.
And so Pigeons fans waited, perhaps a bit more patiently than they’d have liked, for things to come together. It took a while: the early season was tough, and then things got tougher when Keaton Parks was sidelined in May. While the homegrowns on the roster (guys like Tayvon Gray, Jonathan Shore and especially Justin Haak) were blossoming, neither of the young wingers Jansen was ostensibly brought in to unlock, Agustín Ojeda and Julián Fernández, seemed any closer to fulfilling expectations.
NYCFC were, simply put, a well-structured mid-table team that lacked attacking dynamism.
Then the summer transfer window opened, and they finally got their Santi replacement in Nicolás Fernández Mercau. Just like that, it all clicked into place.
Fernández’s individual numbers aren’t exactly overwhelming – just 5g/2a in about 1,500 minutes – but he’s both a relentless off-ball runner and a through-ball artist, and that’s the most additive combination of skills in the game. He’s a force magnifier whose skill set resonates with and amplifies the guys around him, which is why he can play on the wing, as a No. 10, or even as a false 9. Some solutions are better than others, but it all works to a good degree.
After Fernández's arrival, NYCFC went 10W-5L-1D in MLS competitions, and their goals scored jumped from 1.3 per game to 1.63. Attacking dynamism was achieved despite missing star No. 9 Alonso Martínez for portions of the back half of the schedule.
Combine that with the structure and an improving defense (along with Haak's ascendance, the continued excellence of Thiago Martins and Matt Freese, and the mid-season addition of d-mid Aiden O’Neill), the “man, this team’s going to be dangerous come tournament time” pieces all fell into place.
What comes next?
The next thing to happen is, hopefully, something that should have happened months ago: a big, long-term contract for Haak.
He’s 24 years old, can play either d-mid or center back at a high level – I’m talking “deep into the playoffs with intent to win” level; guys like that are rare – and has been part of this club from its inception. Even with the front office in flux (sporting director David Lee took the Sporting Kansas City job back in September, and no, I don’t think he’ll be bringing Haak with him), I’m flummoxed that they’ve let him get this close to true free agency. Seriously, the start date is Dec. 10, and unless they get a deal with Haak done between now and then, he’s the clear No. 1 on my big board.
I don’t think this one should be at all complicated. Developing players of Haak’s caliber from your academy is an ideal outcome, and whoever the new decision-maker is needs to take advantage of that. This is “plug and play and worry about filling that spot in 2033” type stuff.
What to watch for this winter
With Martínez likely hurt for most of next season – he reportedly tore his ACL at the start of November; I doubt we’d see him before, say, next September – the only center forward on the roster who’s played first-team minutes is homegrown Seymour Reid, who doesn’t turn 18 until March. I would absolutely love to see them give him a chance to win the job, but even if he does, they need to reinforce that position. Depth is required.
Know who’d be a perfect fit, both in terms of tactical flexibility and budget? Former NYCFC II man Taylor Calheira, who followed up an excellent 2024 in MLS NEXT Pro with an even better 2025 in the USL Championship with FC Tulsa. As I’ve written a million times over the past year, we’re starting to get a pretty significant block of evidence that says goal-scoring at those levels translates up to MLS, and if I were to pick one USL No. 9 who seems ready to follow in the path of guys like Brian White, Tani Oluwaseyi and Danny Musovski, it’s probably Calheira.
The other spot that needs work is central midfield. Between Parks’ history of long-term absences and the gruesome leg injury Andrés Perea suffered in the Game 3 win at Charlotte FC, there’s a lack of depth even if Shore takes a big step forward next season.
They have premium roster slots available. But after big spending in the 2024 transfer windows (a reported $25 million on five players, none of whom has developed into a starter and three of whom are already gone), one gets the impression they’re now moving more deliberately.
Player I’m excited for
There aren’t a lot of teenage strikers who get to start in MLS, but I think Reid will go into preseason camp with a chance to win the job. I’d love to see it.
Notes
- I’ve got to mention the ageless Maxi Moralez. He doesn’t look ready for retirement to me, and I’m hoping he’s got another two years in him so he can be on the field from Game 1 when Etihad Park opens in 2027. If the Argentine No. 10 does retire, that injects more urgency into this offseason and becomes a clear place to use a DP slot.
- We haven’t seen Malachi Jones in nearly one and a half years. He’d beaten out both Ojeda and Julián Fernández for a starting job on the wing before his gruesome injury in the middle of 2024. If he’s back in 2026… man, this dude was relentless hunting space behind the backline. I’d bet the farm that he and Nico instantly click.
2025 in a nutshell
I got it completely wrong!
I will say straight-up that I loved the vision sporting director/general manager Tyler Heaps and head coach Mikey Varas described to me, in detail, when I was out in San Diego last year for the Expansion Draft. I’m paraphrasing here, but it was all the stuff you’ve heard all year long: we want to have the ball, we want to avoid duels, we want to play backwards to play forwards, we will be brave at all times on all parts of the pitch, etc.
It was music to my ears, but also a tune I've heard before. So many MLS coaches have said so many similar things over the years, and here's the question I always have for them: What happens when you lose three straight games? What happens when playing it out of the back goes wrong?
That’s when most coaches – with the CSO’s blessing – close up shop and start playing against the ball. It’s easier to destroy than create, right?
Heaps and Varas swore that wouldn’t be them. But I looked at their personnel and their ambition, and… picked them to finish dead last in the Western Conference. I was skeptical that the vision they’d talked about would be the vision they were able to implement in Year 1. Tell me it’ll happen over the course of two or three years? Yeah, that makes sense. But right out of the gates?
Nah.
By the end of Matchday 1, they had beaten the reigning MLS Cup champs on the road. By the end of March, I was already eating a big old pile of crow. By the end of April, they’d faced that three-game losing streak and come out the other side with their game model intact and a 5-0 win over FC Dallas to right the ship.
San Diego had an ideology – the exact ideology Heaps and Varas had described to me; by some measures, they were more committed to using the ball than any team in the world – and they were sticking to it. Period.
Along the way, they played and developed more young players than anyone in the league, turned Anders Dreyer into a Landon Donovan MLS MVP candidate (and back into a Danish national teamer again), won the Western Conference, and set a new record for most points (63) by an expansion team. Then they backed that up by winning two playoff rounds.
They were wildly fun to watch, all season long. None of it was a mirage.
Heaps and Varas were as good as their word. I couldn’t be more delighted to have been so wrong.
What comes next?
Part of the plan Heaps and Varas described was building a team that’s brave about using the ball, while the other part is building a culture that’s brave about promoting and integrating young players. We saw it all year long, with guys pulled from the SuperDraft, or out of other MLS academies, or from Barcelona’s B team. At one point, they started a four-man defense with a combined age of 80, which… I mean, I have no way of checking this for sure, but that might be the youngest backline to start a game in the history of top-flight soccer. Not just MLS, but anywhere. Ever.
Because of that ethos, this is a team with a lot of answers and depth, and not many holes. Which means they can be targeted, rather than desperate, with their acquisitions this winter.
I would expect center forward to be a position of particular interest. Just about the only mistake Heaps made this year was letting Milan Iloski – who came in on loan from Danish sister club Nordsjaelland and scored 10 goals in 500 minutes – walk when they couldn’t find a number that worked for both parties. Iloski now plays for the Philadelphia Union, and man… I still think that if San Diego had kept him, they’d have won the Supporters’ Shield. And maybe MLS Cup, too.
Neither of the guys who closed out the season sharing No. 9 duties, Marcus Ingvartsen and Corey Baird, produced much. It’s the obvious spot for Heaps to focus on.
What to watch for this winter
Besides center forward, I’d expect them to look at central midfield a bit. They already have some succession planning done with the addition of Pedro Soma – the former Barca B player and hopefully their No. 6 of the future – and they’re trying to find the right number to get Luca de la Torre back on a permanent deal.
Two areas of potentially bigger impact:
- Is Hirving Lozano happy?
- Has Manu Duah played himself into a massive transfer to a European club?
Chucky was very good this year, but not quite a Best XI-caliber show-stopper in the way Dreyer was. He also missed a bunch of time via both injury and international duty, and then in early October had a reported spat with Varas about being subbed at halftime during a win at the Houston Dynamo. Lozano eventually apologized via social media and got back on the field come the playoffs, but it feels pretty notable that he didn’t start any of those games.
As for Duah, well, if you’re great at talent ID and player development, you’re eventually going to develop players who catch the eye of the world’s biggest and richest clubs. Duah, last year’s No. 1 overall SuperDraft pick, is exceptional and the type of guy who could break the record for an outbound fee for an MLS center back if the right club comes calling.
I’d be surprised if they weren’t prepared for that exact eventuality.
Player I’m excited for
Can I say Cruz Medina? I’m being a little bit cheeky here – Medina’s in San Jose, not San Diego – but Heaps and Varas have aggressively collected players from the 2023 US U-17 World Cup squad, and he was the No. 10 for that team. There were five from that group in this past year’s SDFC roster, and with Medina playing well in MLS NEXT Pro but lacking a clear path to first-team playing time for the Earthquakes… natural fit, right?
Or what about the No. 9 from that team, Keyrol Figueroa? He’s doing well with Liverpool’s U-21s, but isn’t exactly on track to break into the first team there. San Diego, though, do need a center forward. Can they get him on loan for a year? Can they get both guys?
I’m recklessly speculating and connecting dots here. Just to be clear.
I guess my overall point is that developing players remains, to me, the most exciting thing MLS teams do, and nobody did that better than San Diego in 2025. So I’m more excited for more of that than I am for any one particular player.
Notes
- Tverskov was one of my ~five favorite players to watch in MLS this year. Every time he’s on the ball, I get a tingle of anticipation for the pass he could hit that I wouldn’t see coming. It was Sergio Busquets-like.
- As expected, they’ve already permanently acquired left back Luca Bombino from LAFC. He, along with Duah, is one of their two biggest developmental wins this season.
- They’ve got a TON of General Allocation Money (GAM) left over, and given how well they did in last year’s SuperDraft – Duah with the No. 1 pick, and then Ian Pilcher at No. 24 – I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they aggressively traded into the top five.
