Episode 31 starts with hosts John Baney and Mark Radigan and producer Andrew Leigh attempting to properly rate the vibes emerging from New York City FC's 0-0 draw with Columbus Crew last weekend in Ohio.

Was it a positive result, a valuable point gained in a tough environment against a tough if shorthanded Columbus team? Or was it a concerning performance that showed just how badly NYCFC needs new players added to the roster if they want to beat the other top teams in the MLS Eastern Conference?

The draw with the Crew also featured the MLS debut of a pair of 17-year-olds, Máximo Carrizo and Seymour Reid, who together with 35th-minute substitute Jonathan Shore made it a teen-heavy match in Columbus. Mark Radigan explains why he views the involvement of these three NYCFC teenagers as "both a positive and a negative at the same time," which makes total sense when you hear him tell it.

That thrilling 0-0 properly digested, we move on to preparing for NYCFC's trip to the turf of Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the big emotional reunion with the team's former head coach, Ronny Deila, who is in his first season in charge of Atlanta United. There's some talk of all the feels stirred up seeing Ronny back in MLS, as well as Atlanta's tumultuous last year leading into the hiring of Deila. To wrap up our Atlanta preview, we tackle the big NYCFC question hanging over this match: How will Pascal Jansen cover for the possible absence of his midfield mainstay, Keaton Parks?

All that and more is discussed at length, but not at too much length, in this our 31st episode. Listen in full and then get more of our coverage by following Hudson River Blue on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads, and reading all our work at HudsonRiverBlue.com.

New York City FC made it two straight home wins by beating New England, but it wasn't the prettiest or easiest win over the Revolution at Yankee Stadium. That gave us lots of angles to explore as we discussed this work-in-progress NYCFC team.

Hosts John Baney and Mark Radigan and producer Andrew Leigh praise the performances from players like Julián Fernández, Alonso Martinez, and Keaton Parks, plus they touch on the adversity the team overcame in the win, namely the early double-whammy of a Thiago Martins own goal and an early injury to fullback Nico Cavallo.

Episode 30 then shifts to some news updates, including NYCFC being down four players due to international call-ups and promising young winger Malachi Jones facing a second surgery to try to correct his broken right leg.

We wrap things up this week by previewing the trip to Columbus, Ohio, which NYCFC will make without star striker Alonso Martínez, one of those four international call-ups. Is the match at Lower.com Field a golden opportunity for Mounsef Bakrar to prove his worth to new coach Pascal Jansen? Will NYCFC get its first away win vs the Crew since back in April 2017, given that Columbus will be missing multiple key players due to international duty, suspensions, and injuries?

The first New York City FC win of 2025 arrived at the home opener and it gave us plenty to discuss.

We start with a rundown of all the festivities at the home opener meant to mark the 10th anniversary of NYCFC's on-field debut, with pod producer Andrew Leigh providing a boots-on-the-ground perspective on the nostalgic night at Yankee Stadium that included visits from Andrea Pirlo, Kwadwo Poku, and others.

Then it's time for hosts John Baney and Mark Radigan to review the much-needed 2-1 win over Orlando City, which was heavy on the storylines. Mark was impressed by Hannes Wolf scoring the match-winning goal and thinks this will be a turning point for the Austrian, while both he and John rave about the Player of the Match performance in the midfield from 17-year-old Jonny Shore.

The discussion then moves on to Matchday 4's visit to Yankee Stadium from the New England Revolution, a team with zero goals scored in three MLS matches played so far this season. Can New York City build on that home-opener win and maybe target a first clean sheet of the season against New England's struggling attack? Easier said than done in the weird world of Major League Soccer, but confidence is growing with one win now under Pascal Jansen's belt.

Listen to the full episode and then make sure you’re following Hudson River Blue on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads, and reading all our coverage at HudsonRiverBlue.com.

It's home opener week for New York City FC and that means it's a time for anticipation and nostalgia on the Hudson River Blue Podcast.

Before getting into all the excitement and build-up to the first NYCFC home match of the 2025 season, hosts John Baney and Mark Radigan break down the 1-0 away loss to LAFC. That means attempting to understand the lack of decent NYCFC scoring chances, trying to figure out all that went wrong on that 86th-minute Ryan Hollingshead goal, and focusing on some individual players who stood out for the right and wrong reasons for New York City in its first loss of the season.

Season-opening road trip sorted out, the episode then shifts focus to the big 2025 home opener at Yankee Soccer Stadium in the Bronx. Despite the winless start to the season and the in-flux state of the roster, optimism abounds about the year's first home match. We get into the specifics of the match-up and offer predictions about who plays and who doesn't, but we also get nostalgic about past home openers and past meetings with Orlando City.

Maybe that's because NYCFC has been busy celebrating its 10th anniversary leading up to this game, trotting out Andrea Pirlo and harkening back to the team's inaugural campaign. That the home opener against Orlando City will be played on the same date these teams played the first competitive games in each of their existences back in 2015 will be a nice cherry on top of the nostalgia sundae.

Listen to the full episode and then make sure you’re following Hudson River Blue on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads, and reading all our coverage at HudsonRiverBlue.com.

New York City FC's drama-filled, chaotic 2-2 draw with Lionel Messi and Inter Miami CF to open the 2025 Major League Soccer season gave us lots to unpack.

Hosts John Baney and Mark Radigan cover big points like the gut-punch Miami equalizer in the 10th minute of second-half stoppage time, Mitja Ilenič's clever set-piece goal and Messi-trolling Cristiano Ronaldo celebration, and the first big in-game moves made by new NYCFC coach Pascal Jansen.

Discussing Jansen's moves means spending some time talking about 17-year-old Homegrown midfielder Jonathan Shore's MLS debut right at the start of the second half, Justin Haak's slide back to center-back in place of an almost-sent-off Strahinja Tanasijević, and a continued reliance on ageless playmaker Maxi Moralez.

Talk then shifts to a Matchday 2 preview of the game at BMO Stadium against LAFC. We marvel at the toughness of NYCFC's two road matches to start the 2025 MLS season and try to figure out what, if any, changes Pascal Jansen might make to his lineup or his approach for this second competitive game in charge.

Listen to the full episode and then make sure you’re following Hudson River Blue on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads, and reading all our coverage at HudsonRiverBlue.com.

It's the dawn of a new Major League Soccer season and the Hudson River Blue Podcast has one more big preview-centric episode to get you ready for a new year of New York City FC soccer.

We start by discussing two players who won't be on the 2025 NYCFC roster, Santiago Rodríguez who is about to join Botafogo in Brazil, and James Sands, who just suffered a rough injury while away on loan in Germany.

Then we preview the first match of the 2025 season, a trip to face reigning Supporters' Shield winners Inter Miami. Will their midweek Concacaf Champions Cup game in the extreme freezing cold in Kansas City give New York City FC a slight edge over Lionel Messi and company? More importantly and more uncertainly, how will NYCFC even line up for their first match of the season? There are Starting XI predictions and eventually score predictions shared for the big season opener in Fort Lauderdale.

There's also some time spent reflecting on what the expert MLS pundits out there think will come of this New York City FC season. Expert sentiment is that Pascal Jansen has a fringe playoff team on his hands, and we get into whether that's a fair assessment or not while dropping a few of our own predictions for how the 2025 season shakes out.

Episode 26 wraps up with our final preview of a specific group of NYCFC players, this time the team's forwards. Our big questions for the attacking players involve who starts on the wings, how much better Hannes Wolf can be in his second season, and if Alonso Martínez and Mounsef Bakrar will really see the field at the same time.

Listen to the full episode and then make sure you’re following Hudson River Blue on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads, and reading all our coverage at HudsonRiverBlue.com.

We're collectively on high alert for a Santiago Rodríguez transfer away from New York City FC, with rumors intensifying that the attacking midfielder could leave for Botafogo in Brazil's Série A.

Episode 25 begins with an unpacking of all that a Santi sale would mean for NYCFC and some attempts to figure out what's actually going on with his rumored big-money move.

The Santi talk leads our hosts John Baney and Mark Radigan into a discussion of NYCFC's ongoing preseason, which is noticeably missing Santi Rodríguez but is full of other storylines. Will Pascal Jansen really deploy Alonso Martínez in his attack at the same time as fellow striker Mounsef Bakrar? Will any of the unsigned MLS SuperDraft picks start the season by earning contracts with the NYCFC senior squad? 

It's also new 2025 MLS kit week, so time is spent discussing the bright New York City skyline-inspired Excelsior Kit just unveiled by NYCFC. That includes a lot of talk about the fact that the old NYCFC club crest remains on this year's new jersey despite the team unveiling a redesigned crest during the summer of 2024.

We wrap up our 25th episode by continuing our series of 2025 previews for different NYCFC position groups, this week covering the team's midfield. The absence of James Sands is a big topic, as is the need to figure out a non-Maxi Moralez option in the central attacking midfielder role, especially if Santi Rodríguez does end up leaving.

After you’ve listened to this episode, make sure you’re following Hudson River Blue on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads, and reading all our coverage at HudsonRiverBlue.com.

This week Pascal Jansen met the New York City FC media for the first time since becoming the team's Head Coach, so this episode starts with close readings of some of what Jansen – and NYCFC Sporting Director David Lee – had to say in their preseason press conferences.

That included Jansen laying out his goals to give his team more edge, intensity, and sense of invincibility, a "bulletproof mindset" as he put it, which all made him sound, to us, like a coach ready for the challenges of Major League Soccer and New York City.

Our hosts John Baney and Mark Radigan also sounded encouraged by David Lee's insistence the team will be signing some new players, but they wonder whether the Sporting Director is making the right move by waiting until possibly beyond the start of the new season to bring any major new reinforcements in for Jansen and company.

Talk then shifts to one player who will not be reinforcing Pascal Jansen's squad: Jovan Mijatović, as we discuss the young striker's departure on loan for OH Leuven in Belgium. With the Jovan saga concluding (for now), we took a few more minutes to offer shakes of our collective heads over just how badly his time with NYCFC went.

Episode 24 wraps up by continuing to preview the 2025 New York City FC squad, this time by taking a deep dive into the defense. We single out the defenders we expect to stand out this season and all share our preferred defensive lineups. That lineup-making also leads to us continuing the years-long debate over who should be the team's starter at right-back: Tayvon Gray or Mitja Ilenič?

After you’ve listened, make sure you’re following Hudson River Blue on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads, and reading all our coverage at HudsonRiverBlue.com.

New York City FC will compete in both the US Open Cup and Leagues Cup in 2025, but it's not so cut-and-dry for a lot of other Major League Soccer teams.

Both those Cup competitions just got new and slightly complex qualification criteria, and we spend the early part of Episode 23 trying to make sense of who gets into the Open Cup, who gets into Leagues Cup, and who gets left out. Given that we're talking trophies, we also answer the burning question: Which Cup would we pick if we had to choose one for NYCFC to win in 2025?

Another big topic this week is another player leaving New York City FC, this time 18-year-old Homegrown defender Christian McFarlane. There's talk of what's in store for McFarlane now that he's a Manchester City FC player, how his departure impacts the 2025 NYCFC team, and what to make of another deal between two City Football Group teams.

We wrap up this episode by starting in on a series of position group previews ahead of NYCFC's 2025 season, putting a spotlight on the team's goalkeepers. There's a no-doubt starting goalkeeper in place in Matt Freese, but with Luis Barraza gone, questions linger over who serves as Freese's backup on NYCFC matchdays. Will it be Alex Rando, or Tomás Romero, or maybe Greg Ranjitsingh?

After you’ve listened, make sure you’re following Hudson River Blue on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads, and reading all our coverage at HudsonRiverBlue.com.

The transfer market is hot elsewhere in Major League Soccer, but there's not a lot of exciting transfer movement going on around New York City FC.

This episode starts with an attempt to get to the bottom of why we've seen so little transfer activity from NYCFC during this offseason, an offseason that has seen lots of big-name talents – like Wilfried Zaha and possibly Miguel Almirón, to name two – make the move to the MLS Eastern Conference.

We cover NYCFC's tendency under Sporting Director David Lee to make their winter signings closer to or after the start of the MLS regular season, but also wonder if this quiet winter is a side effect of the team's heightened transfer activity during the winter of 2024 and summer of 2023.

There's also the Pascal Jansen factor, as in: Could NYCFC be holding off on making more roster changes until the new coach has joined up with the team for preseason and has had a chance to get a better feel for his new squad?

After our big transfer window chat, we wrap this episode up with a discussion of the United States men's national team, specifically how little we saw of NYCFC goalkeeper Matt Freese during this January USMNT camp. Freese didn't play a single minute in either of the team's two friendlies and was the only previously uncapped player in January camp to not make his senior national team debut. Mauricio Pochettino, that is no way to treat the 2024 MVP of New York City FC!

After you’ve listened, make sure you’re following Hudson River Blue on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads, and reading all our coverage at HudsonRiverBlue.com.