Torn ACL in his right knee, surgery in December, rehabilitation ongoing. Returns earliest in September, maybe October. NYCFC has a 3-2-2 record, fourth place in the Eastern Conference — and tonight at 7:30 PM they host Charlotte FC at Citi Field in Queens. Without Martínez. Again.
What happened to Martínez
The story is painful and at the same time foolish. In November 2025, Martínez flew to a Costa Rican national team training camp for World Cup qualifiers. In a match against Haiti in Curaçao — on a pitch that, according to the Costa Rican federation, “was not fit for play” — he tore his ACL in his right knee. He played the entire match. Costa Rica lost 0:1 and was eliminated from the qualifiers shortly after. Martínez returned to New York with a knee needing surgery and a season to be written off.
The surgery took place on December 4th. Rehabilitation will last 8 to 10 months. This means that if all goes well, Martínez will return to the field at the end of September — for the final weeks of the regular season. If it doesn’t go well — we won’t see him until 2027, in the new Etihad Park.
How NYCFC is doing without him
Better than pessimists assumed, worse than fans would like. Three wins, two draws, two losses. The 5:0 demolition of Orlando in the third matchday showed that this team can play without Martínez. But the 2:3 home loss to Inter Miami and the helpless 0:2 defeat in Vancouver showed something else — that without a striker who draws defenders and knows where to stand for the ball to hit the net, NYCFC’s attack can be barren.
Coach Pascal Jansen rotates the lineup. Nicolás Fernández plays in Martínez’s position, with Santiago Rodríguez and Hannes Wolf operating behind him. There are moments of brilliance — but there isn’t that one guy who, in the last two seasons, scored game-winning goals so regularly that defenders started marking him from the first whistle. Last season, Martínez had ten game-winning goals out of seventeen total. Ten. He’s not just a striker — he’s insurance against a bad day.
Charlotte today — and what’s next
Charlotte FC arrives at Citi Field tonight at 7:30 PM. NYCFC’s probability of winning, according to MLS models, is 53% — decent, but not dominant. NYCFC faces the toughest part of its schedule: after Charlotte, there’s Cincinnati on Wednesday, then Montreal away, DC United, LAFC, and Columbus. Six matches in three weeks. Without Martínez, this will be a test of endurance and squad depth.
Fourth place in the Eastern Conference sounds respectable — but this conference has Inter Miami at the top, and behind NYCFC are teams hunting for every misstep. One or two lost matches and suddenly fourth place becomes eighth.
Etihad Park grows in Queens
There’s one place where NYCFC doesn’t have to worry about the result — the construction site in Willets Point, Queens. On March 25, the last steel beam of the new Etihad Park stadium was installed. 25,000 seats, the first soccer-specific stadium in New York City’s history, the first all-electric sports stadium in the USA. Cost: $800 million, privately financed by NYCFC.
Opening — 2027 season, when MLS switches to a summer-fall calendar mirroring Europe. The stadium will also host nine soccer matches at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games — including the men’s quarter-final. For the duration of the Olympics, it will be renamed “New York Stadium” in accordance with IOC sponsor policy.
New Sporting Director Todd Dunivant said Etihad Park will be “a recruiting tool like no other” — allowing them to attract stars who previously didn’t want to play at Yankee Stadium, sharing a locker room with baseball players and playing on a field with a pitcher’s mound under the turf. NYCFC fans, who for eleven years have bounced between Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, and Red Bull Arena in New Jersey, will finally have a home. One of them told the Queens Eagle: “When I die, I want my funeral to be here.”
What this means for the Polish community
Willets Point is a neighborhood in Queens where Poles have lived and worked for decades. The Mets–Willets Point station on the 7 line is a few stops from Sunnyside and Woodside, where Polish communities are still active. The new stadium plus a complex of 2,500 affordable housing units plus a school plus a hotel — this changes the area in a way that directly affects local communities.
And Martínez? If he returns in October and NYCFC is in playoff contention, the season’s story will write itself: how the New York team survived ten months without its top scorer and saw his return for the finish. If he doesn’t return — the first match at Etihad Park in 2027 could be his new beginning. Either way, Martínez is the missing piece of the puzzle. And NYCFC is counting the days.
Editorial Staff, Voice of Polonia in the USA
NYCFC 2026 Season | Record: 3-2-2 (4th place Eastern Conference) | Tonight: Charlotte FC, 7:30 PM ET, Citi Field | Martínez (ACL): returns earliest September/October | Etihad Park: opening 2027, Olympics 2028
Read more at poland.us.
