{"id":164641,"date":"2026-03-16T03:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164641\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T03:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:28:16","slug":"bronx-ballers-nicolas-fernandez-mercau-leads-nycfc-to-top-of-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164641\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronx ballers: Nicol\u00e1s Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau leads NYCFC to top of East"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Argentine Designated Player was in top form on Matchday 4, taking over with a brace that put the Colorado Rapids<\/a> away at Yankee Stadium.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau opened the scoring in the 22nd minute, then struck with a free-kick on the verge of halftime that proved the game-winner in Saturday’s\u00a03-1 victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I can say is that we don\u2019t have to worry about [Fern\u00e1ndez]. Nico is a fantastic player,\u201d NYCFC head coach Pascal Jansen said postgame.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn intelligent player who brings a lot of energy to the team and plays with a lot of passion and heart. A very clever player.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Big Apple star<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau’s four goals in as many games have helped spark a hot start to the season for NYCFC, who moved atop the Eastern Conference with a 3W-0L-1D record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not only do the Cityzens lead MLS with 11 goals scored, but they’ve now produced 10 points through the first four games of a season for only the second time in club history (2018).<\/p>\n

It continues a strong run of goal-scoring form for Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau dating back to his July 2025 arrival<\/a> from LaLiga side Elche CF. The 26-year-old contributed 3g\/1a in 885 regular-season minutes last season, adding 2g\/1a during the club’s run to the Eastern Conference Final in the Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, he’s among the early contenders for this year’s MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi.<\/p>\n

\n Magno strikes<\/p>\n

NYCFC’s insurance goal came via Talles Magno<\/a>, Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau’s fellow Designated Player who spent the past two years on loan with Corinthians in his native Brazil.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Magno’s 86th-minute strike marked his first goal for the Cityzens since departing in August 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great moment for Talles Magno,\u201d said Jansen. \u201cFor him to score this important goal in an important match like today is a huge thing for him and for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cityzens will look to build on their strong start on Matchday 5 when they welcome Lionel Messi<\/a> and Inter Miami CF<\/a> to Yankee Stadium on March 22 (1 pm ET | Apple TV<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Argentine Designated Player was in top form on Matchday 4, taking over with a brace that put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28004,9,14242,11,10,49,51,50,67675,67457,12687],"class_list":["post-164641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-match-reaction","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city-football-club","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-nicolas-fernandez-mercau","tag-nycvscol-03-14-2026","tag-sendtonews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}