{"id":112601,"date":"2025-08-02T09:23:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T09:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/112601\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T09:23:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T09:23:19","slug":"match-recap-new-york-city-fc-2-0-club-leon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/112601\/","title":{"rendered":"Match Recap | New York City FC 2-0 Club Le\u00f3n\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City FC Goals:<\/strong> Mart\u00ednez 7\u2019, Ojeda 32\u2019<\/p>\n

New York City FC recorded an important 2-0 win over Club Le\u00f3n in Leagues Cup on Friday night. Alonso Mart\u00ednez and Agust\u00edn Ojeda provided the goals, while Matt Freese starred with multiple key saves, including a penalty stop from James Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n

\n Match Recap<\/strong><\/p>\n

A warm summer evening across the water provided the perfect stage for New York City FC\u2019s Leagues Cup clash with Club Le\u00f3n.<\/p>\n

Head Coach Pascal Jansen made several changes to the starting XI following the defeat to Puebla, bringing in Maxi Moralez, Tayvon Gray, Kevin O\u2019Toole, and Andr\u00e9s Perea for Nico Cavallo, Mitja Ileni\u010d, Jonny Shore, and Juli\u00e1n Fern\u00e1ndez.<\/p>\n

The Boys in Blue wasted no time asserting themselves, opening the scoring inside the first ten minutes. A determined run from Alonso Mart\u00ednez earned a corner, and when the ball was flicked on to the back post, the Costa Rican was there to finish from close range.<\/p>\n

Mart\u00ednez nearly added a second moments later after latching onto a loose ball and bursting past the Le\u00f3n backline, but goalkeeper \u00d3scar Jim\u00e9nez reacted well to deny him.<\/p>\n

At the other end, Le\u00f3n threatened when Paolo Medina delivered a teasing cross that forced Matt Freese to claim it under pressure and quickly launch a counter.<\/p>\n

Set pieces remained a key weapon for NYCFC, and a cleverly worked short corner saw Aidan O\u2019Neill deliver a ball into the box that Justin Haak directed on target.<\/p>\n

Haak then made a crucial contribution defensively, producing a vital block to prevent \u00d3scar Villa from leveling the match.<\/p>\n

That intervention proved pivotal, as NYCFC soon doubled their lead with a flowing team move. Nicol\u00e1s Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau threaded a sublime through ball to Mart\u00ednez, who unselfishly squared for Agust\u00edn Ojeda to fire home with authority.<\/p>\n

Le\u00f3n looked to respond early in the second half. James Rodr\u00edguez tried his luck from a free kick, but his effort was deflected by the wall and gathered easily by Freese.<\/p>\n

In the 55th minute, Rodr\u00edguez slipped Ismael D\u00edaz in behind, but the winger was thwarted by Freese from a tight angle.<\/p>\n

The visitors were then handed a lifeline when Strahinja Tanasijevi\u0107 was judged to have handled the ball inside the area. Rodr\u00edguez stepped up, but Freese again rose to the occasion, diving sharply to save the penalty and preserve NYCFC\u2019s two-goal cushion.<\/p>\n

Shortly after, Jansen introduced Juli\u00e1n Fern\u00e1ndez in place of Mart\u00ednez as the team looked to manage the tempo and see out the contest.<\/p>\n

Maxi Moralez was then handed a chance to score against his former club after being found on the edge of the area, but his volleyed attempt was straight at the goalkeeper.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez and Ojeda then combined to create a great opportunity after the former pulled the ball back to the onrushing Ojeda, who saw his effort turned behind for a corner.<\/p>\n

Jansen made his second change of the evening in the 80th minute as he introduced Seymour Reid in place of Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau.<\/p>\n

Le\u00f3n continued to push for a goal and saw several half chances come and go. In stoppage time, Reid was put through on goal with the chance to score but saw his effort saved.<\/p>\n

That would prove to be the last chance of note on a night when New York City recorded an important 2-0 win in the Leagues Cup.<\/p>\n

\n What’s Next<\/p>\n

Next up for New York City FC is a Leagues Cup game against Toluca on Tuesday, August 5. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:00PM ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City FC Goals: Mart\u00ednez 7\u2019, Ojeda 32\u2019 New York City FC recorded an important 2-0 win…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":112602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,15277,405,403,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,71173,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-112601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-match-recap","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-nycvsleo-08-01-2025","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114958447731464880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}