Frank Lampard, David Villa and Andrea Pirlo each scored a goal
Saturday afternoon match at the Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium was big impact for Frank Lampard, David Villa and Andrea Pirlo each scored a goal to lift New York City FC to a 3- 2 win over the Philadelphia Union.
The win ended a four-match winless streak for NYCFC, which moved into second place in the Eastern Conference, two points behind the Union, who had an eight-match MLS unbeaten streak snapped. Lampard made the most of his first start of the season, scoring his first goal of the campaign on eight minutes.
R.J. Allen continued a strong run down the right flank before crossing to the top of the 18-yard box. Tommy McNamara’s shot deflected off a Union defender and Lampard pounced on the
rebound, scoring with his left from eight yards out.
After putting a shot from nearly 50 yards out off the crossbar, Villa netted his league-leading 11 th goal of the year in the 21 st minute. Josh Saunders corralled a Tranquillo Barnetta corner kick and quickly sent an outlet pass to Villa. The captain momentarily lost possession, but Harrison gained it back quickly and charged up the middle of the field and into the Union 18-yard box. With two Philadelphia defenders converging, Harrison cleverly sent a back pass to Villa, who fired low first time to the left of Union goalkeeper Andre Blake.
Pirlo scored his first Major League Soccer goal in the 50 th minute, slipping a 20-yard free kick
around the Union wall and past a flat-footed Blake to give NYCFC (5-5-6) a 3-0 lead.
The Union (6-4-5) pulled a goal back five minutes later when Ronald Alberg scored from the penalty spot. NYCFC played the final five minutes of regulation with 10 men after Jason Hernandez was sent off for his second bookable offense. An own goal two minutes from full time cut the NYCFC lead to 3-2, but NYCFC held on to claim three massive points.
This was the first time in New York City FC history that all three Designated Players – David Villa, Frank Lampard, and Andrea Pirlo – scored in the same match.
David Villa scored his MLS leading 11th goal of the season. Frank Lampard scored his first goal of the season in the 8th minute. Andrea Pirlo scored his first career goal for New York City FC on a free kick in the 50th minute. New York City FC is now in second place in the Eastern Conference – two points behind the Philadelphia Union.
New York City FC Head Coach Patrick Vieira On the significance of the response coming from your three leaders… “This is what you expect from your leaders. I was very pleased but I was looking for more of a team reaction. Everybody was very concerned about losing to the club, and I was looking for the team reaction. I got that reaction from those three players. We have to keep in mind the team performance, especially in the first half and then when we went through a difficult period with 10 men, how we stick together, it was pretty difficult and taking the three points was really important for us.”
On the impact that Jack Harrison had…“Jack is a fantastic talent. He is a young talent and there will be more to come from him because physically he is not as sharp as everybody else because he has been out for four, five months and there is a lot to come from him. He is a fantastic winger…he can come inside, he can go wide, he can deliver with the right foot, he can come inside and play the one two, with the number nine… He is a really, really good player.”
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