{"id":215929,"date":"2026-04-30T21:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T21:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/215929\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T21:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T21:19:07","slug":"vote-player-of-the-month-for-april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/215929\/","title":{"rendered":"VOTE | Player of the Month for April"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here are your Etihad Player of the Month nominees for April.<\/p>\n<p>\n      Nicol\u00e1s Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau<\/p>\n<p>The 26-year-old carried his influence into April in a big way. Deployed as a lone striker in the absence of Alonso Mart\u00ednez, he added three goals to his season tally to reach eight on the year.<\/p>\n<p>It began with a strike against Charlotte, as the Argentine unleashed a venomous effort from range to put New York City FC on the board\u2014another reminder of his technical quality in the final third.<\/p>\n<p>He followed that up days later with a brace in the dramatic 4-4 draw against FC Cincinnati. His first came from sharp instincts, pouncing on a spilled save from Roman Celentano to convert the rebound. His second saw him combine with Maxi Moralez to beat the offside trap before calmly finishing low past the goalkeeper.<\/p>\n<p>A key figure in attack, Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau is emerging as one of MLS\u2019 most dangerous forwards on current form.<\/p>\n<p>\n      Maxi Moralez<\/p>\n<p>The veteran playmaker continues to be a central figure in Pascal Jansen\u2019s side.<\/p>\n<p>Already enjoying a strong 2026 campaign, Moralez added to his assist tally in April while consistently creating chances for teammates. Against Cincinnati, it was his clever pass around the corner that released Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau for one of his goals.<\/p>\n<p>Still dictating tempo with ease, Moralez remains an influential presence, capable of shaping games across the full 90 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>\n      Agust\u00edn Ojeda<\/p>\n<p>The dynamic wide man is enjoying a standout start to the campaign, registering three goals and two assists along with a steady stream of chances created.<\/p>\n<p>In April, he shone brightest during the 4-4 draw against FC Cincinnati. His composed finish early in the second half put New York City FC 3-1 ahead, before his quick pass set up Talles Magno to make it 4-2.<\/p>\n<p>With his blend of pace and skill, Ojeda is a constant threat to defenders and a key component of Jansen\u2019s attack in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here are your Etihad Player of the Month nominees for April. Nicol\u00e1s Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau The 26-year-old carried his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,12,56,71895],"class_list":["post-215929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-player-of-the-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215929","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=215929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}