FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Pascal Jansen was part of MLS history when he stepped onto the sideline on Saturday.
The New York City FC coach was one of four first-year head coaches coaching in the MLS Cup Playoffs Conference Finals.
It’s the first time in the league’s history that such an instance has ever occurred, and in a social media post earlier this week, MLS commissioner Don Garber described it as “one historic moment.”
Among the other coaches are Inter Miami’s Javier Mascherano, Vancouver Whitecaps’ Jesper Sørensen and San Diego FC’s Mikey Varas.
In January, Jansen had taken over an NYCFC squad that had parted ways with former coach Nick Cushing days after the club had been knocked out of the playoffs by the archrival New York Red Bulls last fall.
Since then, the 52-year-old Jansen has built a culture for New York City FC that the players have bought into.
“I’ve been welcomed into this project from day number one, felt very appreciated, very respected,” Jansen recently said about his first year as head coach for the MLS club. “Throughout the first season, I saw my team grow, something that we talked about quite often throughout the season.”
Jansen’s impact on the club has been hard to miss after NYCFC finished the regular season one win shy of the club’s record of 18 and the 56 points in the standings were the most they’ve accumulated since 2019.
New York City FC’s fifth-place finish was the highest they’ve had in the table since 2022 — a year that they also reached the Eastern Conference Finals.
NYCFC goalkeeper and rising U.S. Men’s National Team star Matt Freese credited Jansen’s ability to read his players for the smooth transition and quick success.
“I think, I think Pascal is just such a fantastic leader, and knows appropriate times to be hard and appropriate times to support,” Freese told The Post. “I think he recognizes we’re a young team — I think we’re the second-youngest roster in the league — he recognizes that with youth comes the need for discipline and structure, and culture building. He’s doing a great job instilling that. And then obviously fantastic with his tactics and man management, which has been important this year.”
This season is the second consecutive year that a New York MLS coach in their first year has guided his club to the conference final, with a chance to advance to the MLS Cup Final.
Former Red Bulls head coach Sandro Schwarz led NYCFC’s rival on a surprise run to the final last season in his first year coaching in the league, before the LA Galaxy ultimately defeated the Red Bulls in the championship game.
This year’s MLS Cup Final is also guaranteed to have a pair of first-year coaches, marking the second consecutive year a new coach has led a club to the league’s title game.
Mascherano has made waves in his first year on the Inter Miami sideline as well, more recently with the decision to bench star Luis Suárez, which has paid dividends over the club’s past two postseason matches.
He had remained coy about his decision on whether he would put Suárez in his Starting XI headed into Saturday’s playoff match with NYCFC.
“Yes, we’re clear on how we’re going to play. It’s not my way to let the players know who’s going to play until the last day,” Mascherano told reporters Friday. “I think that’s the best way to keep everyone focused and engaged in the match because I still maintain the same thing. It’s not only the eleven who start that are important, but also the rest of the team. Especially in these kinds of stages, the most important thing is that everyone has to be alert because we’re going to need everyone.”
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