Sitting in a display case just inside the entrance of the New York City FC training facility are a trio of trophies, with their 2021 MLS Cup hardware proudly sitting atop the others. Since then, NYCFC has been chasing a league title to add to their display case.
NYCFC can inch closer to that goal when they face the Philadelphia Union in the MLS Cup Playoffs on Sunday, albeit they’ll have to upset one of the best teams in Major League Soccer and do it without their leading scorer, Alonso Martínez.
Add to it that they were already going to be without injured midfielder Andrés Perea and suspended midfielder Aiden O’Neill, and the Eastern Conference semifinal match may feel like a mountain to have to climb.
While the odds may seem insurmountable, the club viewed it as a call to arms for others to step up on Sunday.
“Now other players have to step up because it’s a big game,” said midfielder Hannes Wolf, the club’s second-leading goal scorer during the regular season. “Everybody will be full of power, full of energy and we need to compensate [for the missing players]. But I think we have a strong squad to do that.”
Still, replicating Martínez’s scoring prowess won’t be easy.
Martínez, who suffered a devastating knee injury during a match with the Costa Rica Men’s National Team over the international break, scored decisive goals during NYCFC’s first-round series against Charlotte and had an expected goals of 1.28 during the postseason prior to the injury.
Following Friday’s training, head coach Pascal Jansen said that he hadn’t “seen anybody that wasn’t present” or looking to step up, but one player in particular who could fill the scoring void for NYCFC is Nicolás Fernández.
The mid-season addition recorded a pair of goals in the series-clinching win over Charlotte earlier this month.
“We all have a lot of quality. We believe in ourselves a lot,” Fernández told The Post through a translator. “Obviously, Alonso is a big miss, and we can’t really replicate him, but we’re going to try our best to do it together as a team.”
Hannes Wolf, celebrating after NYCFC’s win over Charlotte on Nov. 7, 2025, said their short-handed squad will have to rely on a next-man-up mentality in their Eastern semifinal match against the Philadelphia Union on Sunday night. Getty Images
When asked if he would be the one to step up in that spot, he replied, “Hopefully that is [the case].”
“But if not, anybody will be ready on this team to step up and bring the victory.”
Sunday’s matchup between the Union and NYCFC won’t present too many surprises to either side when they take the pitch. The Eastern Conference rivals have faced each other twice in 2025, splitting the season series and each club winning at home.
Nicolás Fernández scores a goal during NYCFC’s win over Charlotte on Nov. 7, 2025. AP
NYCFC defender and homegrown star Justin Haak told The Post that Philadelphia’s big thing is that they “play well in chaos.”
“They want to create chaos in the game,” he said. “I think for us it’s just about keeping calm heads on the field. I think the Charlotte game was great preparation, because the first 20 minutes they had us pinned back in our own half with the atmosphere and how motivated they were. That was good practice because it’s going to be another tough atmosphere to play in in Philly.”
Creating a “calmness within the chaos” was a point of emphasis that Jansen mentioned as well, saying that it was a message he’d conveyed to his club this week.
“That will be key for us in order to make sure that we control a good rhythm of play, make sure that we keep the margins very, very, very small,” Jansen said. “Because like that game in Philadelphia and the game in New York, for that matter, they were decided on small details.”
Should NYCFC win on Sunday, it would send the club to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2022, when they fell just shy of back-to-back MLS Cup Final appearances thanks to a loss to the Union.
Sunday’s winner will face the winner of Cincinnati and Inter Miami next Friday.
