By late afternoon on Nov. 21, the weirdest MLS season in recent memory ground to a halt for both local teams. NYCFC had fallen in a heartbreaking penalty shootout to Orlando City, while the Red Bulls made it interesting late but still lost 3-2 to the Columbus Crew.

Aside from the implications of the global COVID-19 pandemic, this was a tumultuous campaign for both clubs. The Red Bulls fired coach Chris Armas in September, giving Bradley Carnell the keys on an interim basis (permanent hire Gerhard Struber first took over for the playoff game) and becoming the only team this season — out of five — to make a midseason coaching change and still make the playoffs.

New York City had their replacement for ex-coach Domenec Torrent lined up for the start of the season, but Ronny Deila lost six of his first eight MLS matches, putting a talented roster in catch-up mode.

Both teams ended the season strong. The Red Bulls, under Carnell, became harder to beat, losing just one of their last seven matches and claiming the No. 6 spot in the East. NYCFC, in fifth (with seven more points), finally opened the floodgates, scoring 3+ goals in six of the last 10 games, and winning seven of those.

Now, though, the season is over for both. Here’s a look back with some grades and awards.

(Stats from FBref.com):

NYCFC: Let me start with this: Deila was dealt an incredibly poor hand this season. Heber missed roughly half the season with a torn ACL, Maxi Moralez struggled with injuries and Alexandru Mitrita — regardless of what Deila thought of him — left the club midseason. Throw in the season-ending injury to another starter in James Sands toward the end of the year and fifth place suddenly looks like a masterclass.

Now, Deila isn’t without fault. The club’s horrid start to the season shouldn’t be ignored, and the players took too long — for whatever reason — to adapt to his system. There were too many games earlier in the season where the club failed to create chances (six games of an xG below 1), and Deila’s substitution patterns were overly conservative all season long. Injuries and recruitment have a role to play in that, but waiting until the 95th minute of a playoff game to make your first sub, for instance, is too timid a move.

Deila’s rigidity and poor results early on drove fans mad, though his end-of-season results can’t be argued with, and look even better under the full scope of the team’s misfortunes. He deserves to be back for a second year.

Grade: B

RBNY: Offering a grade for the Red Bulls’ coaching this season is a story in two (technically three) parts. Armas coached nine games before being sacked, Carnell served as the interim for 14, and Struber actually made his debut during the team’s playoff game. Record-wise, the team improved marginally under Carnell: he led the team to a 6-5-3 record after Armas oversaw a 3-4-2 start.

Looking deeper, though, Carnell’s version of the team definitely looked (and performed) differently. The South African quickly ditched Armas’ structured 4-4-2 for a more attacking 4-2-3-1, and seven of the team’s 10 best xG tallies of the season came in games coached by Carnell.

Still, the Red Bulls finished with just the 10th-best (out of 14) xG difference in the East, and were probably fortunate to get as many late results as they did. Carnell righted the ship and maybe got a decent amount out of this pedestrian roster, but there will be higher expectations eventually for Struber.

Grade: C+

NYCFC: In the Pigeons’ best times this season, Anton Tinnerholm was a fantastic threat from the right side. In their worst times, he was their sole creative outlet on the field. Tinnerholm was ever-present for NYCFC this season, starting all 23 matches (plus 1 playoff match), leading the team in expected assists (4.1) and tying for the lead in assists (four). He also chipped in with four goals, leading to a fairly absurd offensive contribution in a (shortened) season for a defender. Tinnerholm was consistently good this season, and his angry reaction to being substituted vs. Orlando was likely matched by many supporters watching from home.

RBNY: Across the Hudson River, another fullback gets my pick for player of the season. Like Tinnerholm, Kyle Duncan appeared in every game this season, and was at the heart of everything the Red Bulls did. Duncan chipped in with three goals and two assists (joint-third and second respectively), but it’s the advanced stats that show just how vital Duncan was to his team’s operation. Duncan was (holds breath) fourth on the team in key passes (passes directly leading to a shot, 16), first in progressive passes (essentially passes that travel at least 10 yards towards the opposing goal) with 93, first in successful pressures (123), first in attacking third touches (567), first in successful dribbles (41) and first in pass targets with 835 — meaning his teammates looked to pass to him more than anyone else. Duncan was a constant on both ends of the pitch in a difficult season, and that makes him the team’s MVP. Honorable mention to Florian Valot, who was up there with Duncan in many of these stats and came back from ACL injuries in consecutive years to play every game this season.

NYCFC: Beating your rival is one thing; putting up five goals on them is another. There was no more satisfying victory for New York City this season than its 5-2 drubbing of the Red Bulls on Nov. 1. It had everything from a fan’s perspective. Taty Castellanos exorcised his scoring demons and doubled his season output with a hat trick, captain Alex Ring notched a wonderstrike and the game was one of just four this year played at Yankee Stadium in MLS. Add in the fact that both teams were in the thick of the playoff hunt, and it made the three points even sweeter.

RBNY: There were more dominant performances, like the 4-1 wins against Miami and Montreal four days apart, but none more pivotal than the Red Bulls’ 2-1 win over Toronto on the last day of the season. The gusty win came against one of the league’s best sides and ensured that New York would bypass the play-in round of the postseason. Even with the team now eliminated, that fact shouldn’t be scoffed at in a season where the club had three different coaches.

NYCFC: The club should return a healthier, deeper squad than the one it ended the season with, and the team’s torrid form to finish the campaign suggests it’s gotten more comfortable under Deila. The Norwegian was the club’s fourth head coach in just six total seasons, and it should value stability moving forward with Deila getting a fair amount of leash. Still, a top-three finish in the East and a deeper playoff run next year should be the goal.

RBNY: The Red Bulls struggled to consistently create chances this season, and on paper, that could be a problem again in Struber’s first year. Still, there should be slight optimism around what Struber can elicit from this group. Kaku and Daniel Royer, despite down years, are proven MLS players and teenage sensation Caden Clark should only improve in his first full season with the club. Questions remain around the club’s center forward position, though, and Struber would ultimately do well to earn a playoff berth while he remodels the team.