Pascal Jansen arrived at New York City FC in early 2025 talking about giving his team a "bulletproof mindset," molding a side that was defined by, "Always being aggressive, going out to win the games. A bulletproof mindset makes you work from a standard that you feel like you can handle anything in any stadium under any circumstance."
Late in his second season in charge of New York City, it's harder to find signs of bulletproof-ness in Jansen's squad, which has made a habit of dropping points from winning positions, and with each match played, looks less and less like the resilient and hard-to-beat team that made the MLS Eastern Conference final a season ago.
In Atlanta in the 27th match of this current season, New York City let two points slip away, points that would have been vital in the chase for playoff qualification. The club twice lost a lead over an Atlanta United team that entered in 14th place in the east and playing without its two most productive attacking players, with NYCFC settling for a come-from-ahead 2-2 draw that did, for now, get the club back into ninth place and officially in a playoff spot heading into a two-week international break, but didn't feel like the most positive point earned given the circumstances.
A point on the road does have value, but how NYCFC dropped the extra two points that were there for the taking makes it feel slightly different. After the match, Jansen was openly critical of the mistake made by his backup goalkeeper leading to Atlanta's 74th-minute equalizer, and wondered why his team didn't go harder in search of a third goal that could have earned them a win.
None of this is new territory for the 2026 team. Jansen has been open and at times blunt in criticizing underperforming players throughout this season, though that approach hasn't seemed to stem the tide of individual mistakes that occur that cost New York City points and results. They've now played to nine draws in 2026, and in five of them, New York City held the lead, in a few cases holding a lead deep into the second half.
Single costly moments in which NYCFC switches off or gets beaten, big mistakes made by individual players, missed opportunities to score goals coming back to haunt New York City: That's been the mix of situations costing NYCFC points for most of this stretch of 10 league matches played with only one win earned.
In Atlanta, the big individual mistake was made by backup goalkeeper Tomás Romero, filling in while Matt Freese is away with the United States men's national team, with Freese playing the first 45 minutes of the USMNT's big 4-1 win over Peru in Orlando, Fl., the same day NYCFC drew with Atlanta.
Romero let a tame, hopeful shot from Jay Fortune trickle through his grasp and over the line for Atlanta's second. It was an eminently save-able shot, one most goalkeepers grab onto, but it eluded Romero and it cost New York City dearly.
There was no sugarcoating it from Pascal Jansen when discussing the goal, with Jansen saying, "He's fully aware of the fact that this should have been a save made by him. It's a clear shot in the middle of the goal and that should have been a save. So it's very unfortunate. But yeah, that one's on Tomás. He should have made the save. It's as simple as that."
Add Romero to the list of players to receive this type of critique post-match from the head coach. Luighi has had some of his misses in front of goal discussed in these terms by Jansen, like when NYCFC lost 2-1 to FC Cincinnati on the road, and even again when they lost the Hudson River Derby at home, with Luighi missing opportunities to score in each match.
