There's still no New York City FC wins to be discussed but there is a huge bit of transfer talk to start this episode, with the reports that New York City FC got offered up to $25 million by Sporting Kansas City for Nicolás Fernández Mercau.
There's so much to be said about the reported offer and the fact that NYCFC was willing to accept it. The intrigue is multiplied by the fact that this big offer came from another team in MLS, and specifically the team now run, on the soccer side, by former NYCFC sporting director David Lee.
Hosts Mark Radigan and John Baney and producer Andrew Leigh wonder what this whole affair means for the relationship between Fernández Mercau and NYCFC, what it could mean for the rest of the 2026 season, and how both team and player move forward from here, even if Fernández Mercau stays put and doesn't move to Kansas City, which seems more possible by the day. It's a lot to unpack, given that it's among the wilder MLS transfer rumors to come along.
After The Nico Saga gets its due, it's back to on-field matters, and New York City FC's back-to-back away trips to Cincinnati and New England. Neither was a win, and one was a truly crushing loss, with NYCFC beaten by Evander in second-half stoppage time in Cincinnati. While that match ended in brutal fashion, it did include a promising, if imperfect, performance from new striker signing Luighi, who has integrated much more smoothly than the club's other new attacking reinforcement, Bénie Traoré — though, while concerns are raised about Traoré's slow start, no one is ready to write off the team's newest Designated Player just yet.
From Cincinnati it's on to the 1-1 draw with New England, a scrappy comeback result that required Pascal Jansen to make a double-substitution in the 40th minute after his team made a very rocky start at Gillette Stadium. The double-sub gets a lot of attention, as does the influence of James Sands and Matt Freese in grabbing at least one point to stop what was a four-game losing streak.
Next, it's time to break down the report from The Guardian that MLS will introduce a new playoff format for the 2027/28 season, and it seems quite complicated. We do our best to weigh some of the pros and cons of the new Australian rules football-inspired system that expands the playoff field to 20 teams, with a double-chance round for the league's top seeds. There's some appreciation for the single-table concept that isn't so hung up on Eastern or Western Conferences, but consensus is that the the whole new playoff system feels needlessly complex and like yet another unproductive change to the competition made by MLS.
The episode wraps up with a preview of NYCFC's weekend trip north to play Toronto away, a team suddenly in form and gaining in confidence, and gaining on NYCFC in the Eastern Conference standings.
Listen to the full show embedded at the top of this post, or find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts.
