The Crew are back in action this Saturday as they welcome New York City FC to Columbus for an Eastern conference showdown after Columbus’s trip out west last weekend. The Crew are still unbeaten in MLS play with two wins and two draws.

This match presents a unique challenge for the Black & Gold as their already undermanned squad has been depleted by a combination of injuries, suspensions, and international call ups. Malte Amundsen will miss this match thanks to his red card reception last weekend, while Steven Moreira, Rudy Camacho, and Nico Hagan are unable to play due to injury. In addition, the Crew will be without the services of Patrick Schulte, Mo Farsi, Max Arfsten and Taha Habroune who are all with their respective national teams, Habroune is with the USA u20 squad. 

The obvious question is who the heck are the Crew going to have on the bench? The Crew have 22 players listed on their roster, and Abraham Romero is out on loan, so 21 players. When you factor in the aforementioned absences, the Crew have just 13 available players on first team contracts. A matchday roster is usually 18 players, so look for a number of Crew 2 players to be on the bench for the Black & Gold on Saturday.

Despite their unfortunate (and somewhat self-inflicted) selection problems, the Crew cannot make excuses as they need three points at home to keep pace in the East. The good news is that NYCFC is a team that the Crew have had a good amount of recent success against, winning the last three matches and are unbeaten in their last six against the Pigeons.

New York City FC at a Glance

Record: 2-1-1, 7 points

League Form: W-W-L-D

Leading Scorer: Alonso Martinez (3)

Assist Leader: Hannes Wolf, Julian Fernandez, Maxi Moralez (1)

Player to Watch: Maxi Moralez

Maxi Moralez is arguably the player most synonymous with NYCFC in their club history. The 38 year old Argentine has been with NYCFC for a total of nine years, with a one year stint at Racing Club in his home country. The Ageless Wonder, Moralez is what has made NYCFC tick thus far in 2025. Playing in central midfield, Moralez has the freedom to roam about the field looking for space to receive the ball and launch dangerous attacks. Despite not being the biggest player (he is under 5’5) or the quickest (he’s 38) Moralez has the ability to impact the game as a distributor in attack for NYCFC. His passing ability and vision is one of the best in MLS. He also has the ability to dribble out of pressure and can find the back of the net as well. He has been at the heart of most good things NYCFC has done thus far and that will likely remain true on Sunday.

How New York City FC play

First year manager Pascal Jensen has reverted NYCFC back to what you would expect a City Football Group team to look like. They look to maintain possession and control of the game by calmly moving the ball from side to side and looking for attacking openings. Defensively, they are an organized team that will try and limit space for their opponents and win the ball back quickly. This is a significant shift from last year’s NYCFC under previous Head Coach Nick Cushing where they were much more of a pressing and counter attacking side, as Cushing looked to keep his job. Despite their differences in tactics, both Cushing and Jensen prefer to operate out of some version of a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation. 

NYCFC will look to retain possession as much as they can. Despite this, they rank 17th in the league in possession percentage, with just 48.8%. When they do have the ball, New York will push their outside backs higher up the flank with their wingers moving inside to the more central parts of the field to combine with Moralez. The other two central midfielders will maintain positions closer to the back line to help circulate and probe their opponents defensive shape with the ball. When Moralez or a winger who has tucked inside receive the ball, NYCFC will launch their attacks with runs forward as their opponents look to recover in their defensive shape. For Crew fans, it will look remarkably similar to how the Crew played under Gregg Berhalter and Caleb Porter.

Defensively, NYCFC’s formation shifts to a 4-4-2 to help maintain good defensive stability, while also allowing them to apply pressure in certain areas and at certain moments. This shape usually sees Maxi Moralez move into the forward line to apply pressure with the central striker.

NYCFC do not often press super high up the field, instead preferring to defend out of a mid block about ¾ of the way up the field. That being said, we have seen many MLS managers and teams change defensive tactics when facing the Crew. Don’t be surprised to see NYCFC either choose to press very high up the field, or go the opposite direction and defend very close to their own goal, like Houston did on their trip to Columbus. While this would be out of the norm for NYCFC, the Crew usually see one or both of these strategies in any given match.

How the Crew can win

1. Next Man Up: Missing players cannot be an excuse for this Crew side. The rest of the MLS certainly won’t care and the Crew need to find a way to win despite being short handed.
2. Keep Possession: NYCFC likes to have the ball, same as Columbus. The Crew can gain a big advantage by dominating possession and forcing NYCFC to defend, especially when they aren’t a team built to defend for long stretches of time.
3. Score First: If the Crew can score first and take control of the match, it will eliminate NYCFC’s ability to try and hang on for a draw. Imagine how different the Houston match could have been if the Crew scored an early goal. Look for the Crew to get the advantage early and dominate proceedings from then on.