Nicolás Fernández scored on a first-half penalty kick, and Agustín Ojeda added another in the second half as New York City FC held off the Columbus Crew 2-1 on Wednesday night in Columbus, Ohio. The match turned on two penalty decisions and the kind of fine-margin authority that decides who gets rewarded and who gets punished on the field. One foul, one whistle, one kick. That’s the whole machine.
Who Got the Whistle
NYCFC took a 1-0 lead in the 28th minute on Fernández’s penalty kick. It was his 10th goal this season for the 26-year-old after he scored three in 11 matches as a rookie last year. The penalty was awarded after Ojeda was fouled by Crew midfielder Max Arfsten. The game’s first decisive moment came not from open play, but from the referee’s power to turn contact into a scoring chance.
Ojeda scored in the 70th minute after taking a pass from Talles Magno for a 2-0 lead. It was a career-high fourth goal for the 26-year-old forward after he failed to score in 34 appearances last season. Magno got the assist after entering the match in the 55th minute. The bench, the substitutions, the timing — all of it fed into a result shaped by who had the legs, the depth, and the leverage to keep pressing.
Who Paid the Price
Columbus scored on a penalty kick by Dániel Gazdag in the third minute of stoppage time after a foul on NYCFC defender Thiago Martins. It was Gazdag’s second goal of the season after he entered in the 74th minute. The Crew’s only goal came late, after the match had already been bent toward NYCFC’s side. That’s how these systems work: the people at the bottom of the moment get the bill, and the scoreboard keeps the record.
Matt Freese made three saves for NYCFC, which improved to 3-1-2 in its last six matches. Patrick Schulte stopped three shots on goal for Columbus, and neither goalkeeper had a save in the first half. The first half offered no saves at all, just the slow tightening of pressure until the penalties arrived to settle things.
What the Injuries Left Behind
NYCFC snapped a two-match skid despite having nine players out with leg injuries, including Alonso Martínez, Maxi Moralez, Keaton Parks and Kevin O’Toole. Nine players out. That’s not a minor inconvenience; it’s the cost of a brutal schedule and a body count measured in absences. The club still found enough depth to win, while the injured names stayed off the pitch and out of the frame.
Columbus had won two straight before the two-month break for the World Cup. The break didn’t erase the hierarchy of the league, only paused it. NYCFC is next at home against the Chicago Fire on Saturday, and Columbus hosts FC Cincinnati on Saturday. The calendar rolls on, the fixtures keep coming, and the players keep absorbing the damage while the machine demands the next match.
Fernández’s 10th goal, Ojeda’s career-high fourth, Gazdag’s second, three saves from each goalkeeper, and two penalties decided by fouls. The numbers tell the story cleanly enough. The game belonged to the side that converted the moments handed to it, and the other side got left with the familiar consolation of effort.