David Villa, Jefferson Mena and Steven Mendoza made victory for NYCFC
David Villa struck for a brace and Jefferson Mena and Steven Mendoza scored first half goal to help lift New York City FC to a 4-1 win over the Chicago Fire Friday night at Yankee Stadium, moving into sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference and one step closer to a first-ever MLS playoff berth.
NYCFC, which extended a home unbeaten streak to seven games, can book its ticket into the 2016 MLS Audi Playoffs with either an Orlando City SC tie against D.C. United Saturday, a New York Red Bulls win over the Montreal Impact Saturday or a New England Revolution tie or loss against the Columbus Crew Sunday. NYCFC (13-9-9) raced out to a quick 2-0 lead on a pair of goals in a 62-second span.
In the eighth minute, Andrea Pirlo played a short corner to Ronald Matarrita, who sent a deep cross that Khiry Shelton headed back across the goal. Mena latched on and scored with his knee from inside the six-yard box
for his first career MLS goal.
Villa then scored his 18th goal of the season, receiving a square ball from Shelton and putting a low shot
from 17 yards out past Chicago goalkeeper Sean Johnson.
The Fire (6-14-9) pulled a goal back in the 27th minute when Luis Solignac latched onto an Arturo Alvarez
cross and headed into the net from the edge of the six-yard box. However, NYCFC went into the break with a two-goal lead thanks to a Mendoza golazo one minute before halftime. Villa picked up the ball inside his own 18-yard box following a Chicago corner kick and burst up the field. The captain played to Mendoza, who cut inside the field and hit a blast from 25 yards out into the upper right corner of the net for his fourth goal of the season.
Villa put the finishing touches on the emphatic win when he received a pass from Shelton, cut back on Chicago defender Michael Harrington and scored brilliantly inside the far post from 16 yards out. Full Match Recap: Click here
With his two goals tonight, David Villa recorded his 5th multi-goal game of the season.
On tonight’s win outlook with David Villa’s influence on the game was really important game for us and I’m really pleased with the win.
The way we played for the game really satisfied me and rest of the team, but what was important for us was to win the game and we did it in a really good way. Regarding David, when he’s playing like that, nobody can stop him.
From the way that’s he’s fighting, he’s a captain of the team. He’s a leader of the team. I think tonight’s performance was one of the best I’ve seen from him.”
Even Khiry Shelton performance tonight was really well. I knew that he would go up and down because it’s been quite a long time since he’s started a game, but when I analyze this game from the start to the end, he did what I was wanting him to do and he had a really good game. He has a physical presence upfront and he works really hard for the team, and I was really pleased with his performance tonight.”
