NYCFC back on track with home victory!
NYCFC made to the top with Jack Harrison who scored his second professional goal. The victory, NYCFC’s third in a row, gave the Club sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference, one point in front of the Philadelphia Union.
Such great win over the Red Bulls in the sixth installment of the New York Derby Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.
Harrison put NYCFC (7-5-6) in front in the eighth minute when he latched onto an Andrea Pirlo, evaded Mike Grella with his second touch and then put a low shot off Luis Robles and in from 14 yards for his second goal of the season. Villa doubled NYCFC’s lead in the 66th minute with his first goal in five derby matches. Off a quick counter, Frank Lampard sprung Harrison, who raced down the right side. Harrison played a sublime ball across the box to a sprinting Villa, who tapped in from seven yards out. It was Villa’s league-leading 12th goal of the season.
The Red Bulls (7-9-2) finished the match with 10 men after Chris Duvall received a straight red card for a dangerous tackle on Pirlo in the 79th minute.
Villa had two quality chances to extend NYCFC’s lead before the interval, but Robles did well to dive to his right in the 37th minute and then the captain’s attempt from 20 yards deflected out for a corner one minute before halftime.
Villa nearly had a brace three minutes from full time when he danced around Dax McCarty and into space, but his curling effort was just over the crossbar.
New York City FC head coach Patricj Vieira after press conference, told On what the plan was tactically today… “I think we did our homework. We knew that they are aggressive and that they were going to stay on the ball. Our idea was just to create more distance between their outside backs to close our outside backs and give us a little more time to make a decisions and that’s why I’m really happy because we took the three points, but I was more pleased with the way we played because we stuck to our principles and that was really good.”
On the differences in the team today versus the team that lost 7-0 and the significance of getting the first win over the Red Bulls…
“We had all week to prepare for the game. We were a completely new version of New York City because we had a week to prepare for the game. Mentally and physically we were prepared to play a derby game and that wasn’t the case when we played the first game. Today I was really pleased. We worked hard. We worked well. I strongly believe that we had the best team today.” On whether it feels better getting his first derby win or being in first place and whether this was the team’s best defensive game…
“I think being on top of the league at this point in time doesn’t mean a lot. What I’m pleased with is our performance and the way we played today because people were expecting a reaction from us from the way we played in the last game against them. I’m really pleased because the team was really organized, determined, and worked really well for each other – and of course, taking the three points because what is important for us is trying to have this kind of
consistency game after game. I’m also really pleased because we didn’t concede a goal. This was our second game where we didn’t concede a goal and I’m really pleased with that as well.”
On today’s play compared to the last Derby match… “It was a great match and the last time we may have lost 7-0 but this time we were able to come back.”
Tommy McNamara, how he adjusting the results today..
“It was nice to get a win in the Derby but at the end of the day its 3 points. It’s a long season so we may be at the top of the derby right now but there’s no guarantee that we are going to be there at the end of the year. We have to stay humble and hopefully there is more to come going forward.”
On the upcoming schedule…
“Well we were able to keep the momentum going from the last two wins into this match.We have an important week coming up with these two games.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHccYOuBMo7/
