NEW YORK, NY — Two weeks from Saturday, NYCFC begins the 2025 MLS season with an immediate test on the road at Inter City Miami and LAFC, two power teams in the sport. And they will have a different look on the sidelines with new coach Pascal Jansen.
A young NYCFC team mixed with a few veterans. A coach who works well with player development, a major reason why Sporting Director David Lee anointed Jansen as their sixth coach in their brief franchise history. He succeeds Nick Cushing who had success but parted ways after an unexpected run last season for the MLS Cup.
NYCFC’s newest head coach Pascal Jansen and Sporting Director David Lee – Image Credit: NYCFC
NYCFC lost 2-0 to their rival Red Bulls at Citi Field in late November at Citi Field and their quest for an MLS Cup concluded with disappointment in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Then, Cushing was ignoring rumors of an imminent departure and moving on. He was always content leading NYCFC, an assistant during the championship year of 2021 and later rewarded with a contract as head coach.
Now as the new season embarks, Lee and Jansen have devoted a brief offseason to making another run at a second franchise MLS Cup. In their first Zoom press conference of the season with the media late Tuesday afternoon, there was no denying the play will be aggressive and also learning as they move along.
“We’re really pleased that we were able to appoint and hire Pascal, allowing him to start working with the group early in the preseason,” said Lee. “We’re looking at how the entire roster develops. To be totally honest, there is a focus on young players. Of course, we have assembled and acquired what we believe to be a group of really talented young players.”
The London born Jansen was signed through 2028, and that will be a year after NYCFC opens their new multi-purpose soccer stadium that sits across the street from Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets.
NYCFC’s new stadium is set to open in 2027 – Image Credit: NYCFC
He brings extensive European experience having managed 192 matches across Hungary and the Netherlands, including UEFA Champions League qualifiers, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League.
He knows the challenge, new league and coaching in a market city that demands a winner. NYCFC has a solid fan base and Jansen said to fans to be assured his team will be ready and competitive. The team has signed a few players from their successful academy training ground. They also wont have midfielder James Sands, their first homegrown player since 2017, a search on the pitch that Jansen will continue to lead as the pre-season schedule concludes in the next week.
Sands, NYCFC Defensive 2024 Player of the Year, was instrumental in their run to the MLS Cup and late season push. He is currently with Bundesliga Club FC St. Pauli.
“We know what has to be done,” he said about restoring a proper player to the midfield, one of his first challenges of many and continuing in a brief time to acclimate with new surroundings. “What I told my guys when I arrived is that we have to take it to another level in order to be more successful. I’m aiming for higher intensity, a bit more flexibility in how we defend and attack, and of course, greater stability within the team.”
NYCFC fans are counting down the days towards the 2025 MLS regular season – Image Credit: Diego Abarca/Latino Sports
But experience got him here. Lee made that known. NYCFC struggled last season before making their late season push and run for the MLS Cup. The prior season they failed to make the playoffs and many believed that Cushing would not return.
Jansen has managed Ferencvarosi TC of the Hungarian top-flight since June 2024, leading them to second place in 16 league matches and has featured in this season’s UEFA Europa League across six matches.
“Always being aggressive, going out to win the games,” he said. “Obviously but a bulletproof mindset, in my opinion, makes you work from a standard that you feel like you can handle anything in any stadium under any circumstance. So that’s what I’m looking for.”
Lee said Jansen coaches with a style of attacking that will create chances and score goals. Cushing was no different but during his tenure the past few years results showed that goals were hard to find. You can’t blame the coach for lack of goals but as they say it comes down to the culture and the coach becomes the culprit.
Pascal Jansen will look to implement his coaching style on NYCFC and help lead them back to the top of the Eastern Conference of the MLS – Image Credit: NYCFC
Inconsistency though from young players, a good part of the NYCFC roster is something that Pascal believes will be an emphasis. Leadership will come from 37 year-old Argentinian midfielder Maxi Moralez who signed a new contract and was part of the 2021 championship team.
“I can see on a daily basis already how important he is helping out every player, not just the younger players, but every player,” Jansen said about Moralez.”In order to become that better player and help us be more successful.”
As they await their new home, NYCFC will play 16 home games combined at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field this coming season – Image Credit: Ernesto Diaz/Latino Sports
Thiago Martins, a defender who provides solid play in the middle in his fourth year is coming off a 2024 season of highest player percentage minutes.
And that welcome and initial season in New York, that doesn’t seem to phase Jansen. Though he had a message to the fanbase that will see NYCFC once again have 16 home games combined at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field as they await their new home.
“Demanding fans is something I love,” he said. “And I’m looking forward to meeting them because I think the fans are huge parts of a club that’s trying to grow to be next level and be very successful.”
Rich Mancuso is a senior writer and contributor at LatinoSports.com – X: @Ring786, Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
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