NYCFC puts up fight in Leagues Cup loss to Toluca, ending 2025 tournament run | OneFootball

When New York City FC’s lineup came out for the final match of Phase One of the Leagues Cup, it was nice to see that Pascal Jansen went with the stronger Starting XI.  The Pigeons faced Deportivo Toluca Fútbol Club, one of the best teams in Liga MX. While moving on in the Leagues Cup was highly unlikely, at least the Boys in Blue went out, looking to put up a fight.  They did so, but it was not good enough.

NYCFC fell to Deportivo Toluca 2-1, with all of the goals occurring in the first half.  The Bronx side started off decently well, but the Mexican side took over the pace of play for most of the first half, leading to what would be a win for them.

In complete honesty, this was the fixture that it was easy to predict that NYCFC would lose. It was not thought that they would lose against Club Puebla when the Leagues Cup began, and that pretty much put them on the path to elimination regardless of what happened in the final game.

The disastrous start to Phase One kind of made it easier to accept the defeat.  Of course, it would have been great for NYCFC to win and knock out their opponents.  But that was not meant to be.

NYCFC falls to Toluca and exits Leagues Cup

There was hope early on for NYCFC.  The Boys in Blue went ahead first thanks to a goal from Alonso Martínez.  The goal began with Maxi Moralez, who calmed down the possession in the midfield to start the sequence of passes.  The captain found Andrés Perea, who then picked out Agustín Ojeda.  The winger subsequently passed the ball to Martínez, who was in the midst of Toluca players right outside the box in the center.  But rather than waiting for help, the Costa Rican snuck the ball into the goal.

Alas, as the first half progressed, the Liga MX side became the more dominant force.  Eventually, they tied the match in the 37th minute.  Jesús Ricardo Angulo scored via a header after Paulinho’s shot hit the post, and Matt Freese was off his line, allowing him to score on the rebound.

Two minutes later, Paulinho scored his goal, powering his way through NYCFC defenders and curling the ball on the ground and into the back of the net.  However, it was initially called offside before VAR came into play.  Using the virtual assistant line, the goal for Toluca was given, although controversial, based on the time of the review.

That would be the final goal of the evening, but that was not the end of the drama.  The feistiness in the first half kept growing and growing.  Therefore, it was not surprising that the teams got into it before halftime.  There was yelling, pushing, shoving, and more.  Somehow, nobody received a red card, and everyone made it into the locker room without anyone being sent off.

NYCFC was slightly better with their offensive chances in the second half.  Unfortunately, they could not find the back of the net. The best chance came in the 70th minute.  Hannes Wolf had a brilliant back heel pass to Martínez, who had the space to put the ball away and tie the game.  But he hit the top bar of the goal, missing what would have probably been the goal of the night.

Meanwhile, Mitja Ilenič, who came on in the first half for an injured Tayvon Gray, was a big difference maker offensively on the right side.  Once the Pigeons got into the game again in the second half, his runs up the pitch and his passes gave NYCFC another attacking option.  He even had a fantastic shot from outside of the box that went just wide after making contact with Toluca’s goalkeeper, Luis Manuel García.

In the end, losing to Toluca officially eliminated the Pigeons from the Leagues Cup. Yet, they fought hard, especially in the second half, to get something out of this game.  And again, they were unofficially out of the tournament regardless of the result.