Joseph Lowery
Where we left off last year
2024 season: 50 points, 6th in the Eastern Conference, 13th in MLS
Here’s NYCFC’s 2024 in a nutshell: a really, really young team had a solid regular season, won a playoff series, and lost a tough Eastern Conference semifinal to a bitter rival. There was some good. There was some bad. And, again, there was a whole lot of youth.
According to FBref, New York City FC had the second-youngest squad in MLS last year, weighted by minutes played. It was up to then-manager Nick Cushing to figure out how to piece a bunch of young, largely high-priced attacking pieces together into a successful team. Sure, there was the occasional bit of Maxi Moralez brilliance. But for the most part? NYCFC was a young man’s team. Cushing paid the price for that team’s playoff failure with his job.
All signs point to City Football Group still being quite content to use their New York City branch as a place to stash promising South American attackers in hopes of either turning one of them for a profit or finding one to help at their branch in Spain or England.
