Pascal Jansen says his focus is fully on New York City FC after returning to the touchline ahead of Thursday night’s home clash with Toronto FC.
The Dutch coach missed Saturday’s trip to Montreal due to a personal matter, with New York City narrowly losing the contest 1-0. Speaking ahead of his side’s final home league game before a four-match road stretch, Jansen underlined the importance of putting the Montréal result behind them and rediscovering the consistency they had previously shown.
"Well, first of all, I trust my fellow staff members,” he said. “We are working very closely together in order to prepare our matches. I was fully confident that they would handle themselves.
“The first 15 minutes, apart from conceding three unnecessary corners within the first six minutes, it looked like we were heading in the right direction, but then, as I mentioned, a few things happened which made us very vulnerable. I wouldn't say that frustrates me sitting at the other end of the world and watching it on TV, but it surprises me, because I was hoping that we had moved on from that point in our process.
Thursday's meeting with Toronto is New York City’s final home league match until the end of August, with a critical four-game road stretch coming up in July. Jansen acknowledged the weight of the occasion, but confirmed that the focus must remain on addressing internal challenges.
"Yeah, of course, it's a huge game,” he 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 Montréal 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 Montréal 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."
New York City will be boosted by the return of Alonso Martínez, who is back from international duty with Costa Rica at the Gold Cup. Jansen praised both the forward’s quality and his leadership off the field.
"Alonso is a huge piece within our team, within our dressing room,” he said. “Also, Alonso is a quality player and a great personality in the dressing room, so it's good to have him back, but it's living between both worlds, because he's also a very important player for the national team, and we're very honored that he was at a big tournament like the Gold Cup. But now he's back, and we're getting him prepared in order to be available for this match again."
Toronto come into the match fresh off a pair of high-profile roster changes, with Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi both departing the club. The pair mutually agreed to end their contracts early, and while Jansen said he respects the quality of the duo, he stressed his team’s preparation remains unchanged.
"I think both of them are quality players,” he said. “But I’m sure they have their reasons as to why they must part ways. So now they have to prepare without these two quality players, and we are prepared for whatever scenario comes our way, because if you look at the previous game that they played, both players were not involved in that game as well, and preparing for the next game is always looking back at the past three, four, or five games in order to have a good picture of what we might expect. That hasn't changed in our approach going into this game."
Jansen also touched on what it meant to be back with the group after time away.
"It feels great to be back,” he said. “Also, the response from my boys throughout the week, the contact that there has been between us, I think we've created a dressing room, which I’m very proud of because we take care of each other. This was a huge thing for me coming into this project, and it still is. It feels really good.
"But on the other hand, I've been in professional football now for over three decades, but there is nothing more important than family. So when I was needed back home, no doubt in my mind, I had to fly back and be there, and now I'm back here, and my focus is fully back on becoming better with my boys again."
