New York City FC head coach Pascal Jansen has challenged his side to be more consistent in the second half of the season.

Jansen missed NYCFC's 1-0 defeat to CF Montreal last time out due to a personal matter, but will return to the touchline when they host Toronto FC next.

In their last eight games, NYCFC have won three, lost three and drawn two matches, highlighting their inconsistency problems, which leaves them ninth in the Eastern Conference.

Their next match against Toronto will be their last home match before a four-game road trip. Jansen said the upcoming schedule and current form make this a huge game for his team.

"Yeah, of course, it's a huge game," Jansen said. "But from a different perspective, not only because it's our last home game for a while, but also, like I described just now, we have to get rid of this inconsistent behavior, and it's been a topic throughout the season.

"I thought going into the second part of the season with the game against Atlanta, we showed huge progression, and seeing the game against Montreal shows us that we're not quite there yet. We had to hurt, we had to learn this the hard way, coming back from the Montreal game.

"So that is in our mind now going into this game, making sure that we show the same discipline as we've shown in the games previous to the game against Montreal, and move forward from there."

Toronto, who are 13th in the Eastern Conference, ended a four-game winless run in their last match after a surprise 3-0 win over the Portland Timbers.

They have however lost Italian duo Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernadeschi after they both left the club by mutual consent earlier this week. 

PLAYERS TO WATCH

New York City FC – Hannes Wolf

Wolf is NYCFC's joint-top scorer with eight goals in MLS this season, while also providing two assists.

He has also scored in NYCFC's last three matches that have not ended in defeat, but failed to do so in their last two losses.

Toronto FC – Alonso Coello

Coello scored his first goal of the season in Toronto's win over Portland.

He also won five tackles in the match, becoming the first Toronto player to have a match with 5+ tackles won and a goal since Raheem Edwards did so against NYCFC in July 2017.

MATCH PREDICTION – NEW YORK CITY FC WIN

Starting with a Leagues Cup win in July 2023, NYCFC have won five straight matches in all competitions against Toronto. The only longer win streak against a single opponent for the Pigeons was when they won each of the club's first six meetings with FC Cincinnati (2019-21).

But they were unable to find the back of the net for the seventh time in MLS play this season in their road loss to Montreal. NYCFC has been shutout more times in a single MLS season, just twice (10 in 2023, eight in 2024).

Toronto, meanwhile, arrive with confidence after their win over Portland. Their four victories this season in all competitions have been by different margins (one, two, three, five). Robin Fraser's team are looking to win consecutive league matches for the first time in all competitions since doing so in August 2024.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

New York City FC – 59.4%

Draw – 21.2%

Toronto FC – 19.4%