New York’s MLS clubs trending in opposite directions on Decision Day

Decision Day is upon the MLS again on Saturday.

While both New York teams have wrapped up their postseason fates, New York City FC (NYCFC) has a chance to improve on its current fifth-seed position against the Seattle Sounders at Citi Field. For the Red Bulls (RBNY), the club has a chance to start anew on the road against the Columbus Crew after missing out on the playoffs for the first time since 2009 .

City are fifth in the East, tied on points and goal difference with Charlotte. The Crown hold a spot over them, and a critical home-field advantage in the playoffs’ first match, only by virtue of four more goals scored.

NYCFC head coach Pascal Jansen emphasized that his side is doing “what we normally do.”

“We’re coming back from a loss — a tough match away against [Philadelphia] — where we weren’t as clinical as before,” Jansen told the media ahead of Saturday’s home against the Seattle Sounders. “So for us, the main thing is bouncing back from a bad result like we always try to do.”

The Dutchman has gotten to grips with the MLS over the course of the season, where the Boys in Blue faced inconsistent results up until July. City had not strung together more than a two-match unbeaten run until NYCFC’s last four-match road trip, where they picked up two wins and a draw against Orlando, Dallas and Kansas City, respectively.

After a break in league play to end July, NYCFC continued where they left off, securing narrow wins to beat Nashville and Cincinnati, two Eastern Conference playoff teams, through Alonso Martínez winners. In their next seven games, City only dropped points against D.C. United, Inter Miami and most recently, Philadelphia. It also featured NYCFC’s second consecutive sweep of the regular season Hudson River Derby over RBNY in as many years.

Jansen is also one win away from matching a club record 18 wins in a season, achieved in the 2019 season under Domenec Torrent with 64 points. If Jansen’s men manage all three points on Saturday, they will be on 59 points, the second-highest points total in club history. Jansen surpassed the highest points tally achieved by NYCFC since the 2021 MLS Cup-winning year in th

“If it wasn’t for some historic seasons happening in Philadelphia, Vancouver and San Diego, I think Pascal Jansen would be spoken about as an MLS coach of the year candidate,” former RBNY midfielder and analyst with Apple TV for MLS Season Pass, Dax McCarty told amNewYork.

Whilst the Boys in Blue have been on the rise , the red side of New York has been on a downward slide.

Despite making the MLS Cup last year, losing to the LA Galaxy and beating NYCFC on the way in the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Red Bulls finished in the seventh seed. Sacha Kljestan, former RBNY midfielder and co-analysts with McCarty, categorized his former team’s performance as “a playoff run,” last year, emphasizing that RBNY had hit a rich vein of form at the right time — something it hadn’t proved during the 2024 regular season.

The year before that, they were tied in the wildcard spots with Charlotte in eighth, beating Montréal and NYCFC, who were 10th and 11th, to the postseason.

“I would say it’s about the last five years where I believe NYCFC is on the right trajectory and the Red Bulls are not,” Kljestan told amNewYork.

The Californian added that his former side had to “take a hard look at themselves in the mirror and figure out what they want to be.” RBNY chased German striker and UEFA Champions League Timo Werner all summer long to no avail, keeping that third designated-player spot empty to leave the door open.

“I think [the Red Bulls] got away from what has made them successful in the past, and I’d like to see them go out and spend more money now,” Kljestan said. “A little bit more on a third attacker to join the other two — what we’ve seen is that [Eric Maxim] Chuopo-Moting had a good season and [Emil] Forsberg had a good season, and after that, I’m not totally sure.”

The Red Bulls had a good home record this season, propped up by 10 wins and three ties. It is the 10th best home record in the league and would firmly place them in the playoff spots, if spots were decided on home form alone.

However, their dismal 2-4-10 away record “is the reason why we don’t play the playoffs,” head coach Sandro Schwarz told the media before his side’s last road match of the year.

Even though the Red Bulls don’t have anything to play for and are facing a Columbus side that is pushing for higher seeding, head coach Sandro Schwarz said he is still proud of his side and the character they have shown throughout the year.

“I can’t criticize [the players] for the character, the behavior, the mentality,” Schwarz said. “Never, never, never.”