This past winter, during Major League Soccer's Primary Transfer Window, New York City FC's new sporting director, Todd Dunivant, found himself under the microscope.
It was his first window at the helm, so fans and media alike pondered how Dunivant might bolster his new side, one that made a surprising run to the Eastern Conference Final a season prior.
Instead of hype and anticipation over the team’s roster construction, the vibe emanating from the NYCFC faithful after Dunivant's debut transfer window wasn’t celebratory. With no games to scratch the itch, fandom was expressed primarily by following the team’s roster moves, preparing to celebrate a key signing as if it were a stoppage-time winner.
Instead of scoring that winner and wheeling off in celebration, Dunivant had Justin Haak walk away on a free transfer, Moussa Sylla's Designated Player signing fall through after a failed medical, Julián Fernández and Mitja Ilenič sent out on loan, and crucially, no new signings come in at the No 9 to backfill for the injured Alonso Martínez, NYCFC's leading goal scorer over the past two seasons.
Kai Trewin joined from sister City Football Group club Melbourne City FC in Australia, but overall, instead of building on the success of the year prior, the squad Dunivant thrust out there to start the 2026 season felt like a watered-down version of its 2025 self.
The first half of NYCFC's season reflected this, with Pascal Jansen struggling to get consistent performances from his patchy roster. He desperately squeezed as many minutes out of his starting-quality legs as he could, but those legs grew heavier as the spring’s grueling, condensed schedule wore on.
By the time the World Cup pause mercifully rolled around in early June, NYCFC had limped to a disappointing, but not disastrous, 5-4-6 record and an eighth-place standing in the MLS Eastern Conference.
Now, as the Secondary Transfer Window rolls around, Dunivant has the chance to "take the field" once again. Instead of doing so under the same microscope, he’s behind the giant smokescreen that is the 2026 FIFA World Cup. FIFA estimates six billion people will be tuning into this year’s tournament, so unlike his first window, Dunivant's roster construction won't be snatching many front-page headlines.
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That is, of course, except for among the real NYCFC sickos like us here at the New York Soccer Journal. As the sickos may have noticed, Dunivant has been making some real noise from somewhere in that six-billion-viewer cloud of smoke.
Since the World Cup kicked off on June 11, our NYCFC Tracker has logged seven rumors regarding incoming transfers to the Big Apple — a huge number for a notoriously tight-lipped organization. Some of those rumors have since been made official, while others continue to swirl in the background, still with plenty of time to materialize before the window shuts on Wednesday, September 2.
NYCFC's squad felt thinned out as the World Cup approached, but as the tournament draws to a close, the depth is beginning to feel like a point of strength, one that could set the stage for a trademark second-half charge towards the playoffs for the Pigeons.
