New York Red Bulls Revenge Falls Short in 2-3 NYCFC Loss; David Villa Hat Trick (Highlights) 2
NYCFC.com

The New York Red Bulls traveled to the Bronx to exact revenge on their Hudson River rivals. David Villa and NYCFC, however, had other plans defeating RBNY 3-2.

Fourth Place RBNY played third place NYCFC to a 3-2 loss. An early goal by David Villa was matched by Bradley-Wright Phillips’s 41st-minute goal. A hard-fought match saw a Daniel Royer injury which caused him to be pulled from the game. Eventually, another goal by BWP in the 64th-minute was no match for David Villa and NYCFC. Villa notched two more goals for a hat trick, one being a penalty.

First Half

The New York Red Bulls were sluggish out of the gate. Limited opportunities on goal reflected RBNY’s defensive woes. With only three shots on, goal NYCFC kept RBNY busy in their defensive third.

A non-foul play in the 14th-minute sidelined Daniel Royer for the rest of the match with a knee injury. Alex Muyl came on for Royer.

NYCFC produced six shots on goal approaching the 35th-minute mark. Three of those shots were from David Villa. It was RBNY’s poor offense which allowed David Villa so much opportunity on the ball. Eventually in the 28th-minute NYCFC’s Villa opened up the scoring.

Villa was found open on a breakaway off of a RBNY miss-pass. Poor marking by Zizzo led to a hesitant Robles. Villa easily side-stepped the RBNY keeper for the first goal of the game.

In the 41st-minute, Bradley-Wright Phillips tied up the match with a groundball slotted passed the NYCFC goal line. Sean Davis assisted the goal by distributing a ground pass to BWP near the top of the 18-yard box.

In the 45th-minute, BWP had another opportunity which almost found the back of the NYCFC net, but offsides was called.

The first half score was 1-1.

First Half Stats

Score: RBNY 1 – NYCFC 1
Shots: RBNY 8 – NYCFC 8
Shots on Goal: RBNY 4 – NYCFC 6
Possession: RBNY 55.1% – 44.9%

Second Half

In the 64th-minute Adams passed a ground ball across the six-yard box and found the feet of BWP. Wright-Phillips simply opened up his hips to slot the one-time shot into the goal. This made the game 2-1 in favor of RBNY.

In the 70th-minute, Kemar Lawrence wasn’t able to keep stride with the NYCFC attack in the six. David Villa’s foot found the pass from Sean Okoli and beamed toward Robles. A great reaction save kept RBNY in front.

Unfortunately, David Villa, in the 72nd-minute, raced through the RBNY defense and hit a screamer toward Robles’s near post. Robles got a hand on the shot, but it was too powerful and deflected into his near-post side.

In the 74th-minute, David Villa was taken down inside the RBNY’s 18 by Zizzo. David Villa stepped up to the mark and slotted the ball passed Robles. This was Villa’s third goal of the game.

Zizzo in the 90th-minute, received a double-yellow red-card for a harsh foul on Yangel Herrera.

In the end, both teams fought hard, but sloppy defending by RBNY gave way to the attacking prowess of David Villa.

Final Stats 

Score: RBNY 2 – NYCFC 3
Shots: RBNY 16 – NYCFC 16
Shots on Goal: RBNY 7 – NYCFC 10
Possession: RBNY 56.1% – NYCFC 43.9%

Chris Sudol is a former college soccer player who now avidly supports the New York Red Bulls, Arsenal, and Barcelona, among many other soccer teams.