NYCFC : Victorious at Yankee Stadium
By Howard Goldin
BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 15- NYCFC began its match with the Montreal impact on Saturday night at the pitch at Yankee Stadium mired in last place in the Eastern Conference with 11 points, the lowest total of All 20 clubs in the MLS.
Despite that negative, the coach and players realized that a win would net them three points and tie them with thee two clubs above them in the standings, the Montreal Impact and the Chicago Fire. A victory would also give them their first two‐match winning streak in their short history. The Impact also came into the match with a high degree of self‐confidence as they had won their last two matches and four of the past five.
That statistics tell the definitive story of NYC’s offensive thrust early in the contest. During the first half, the home team kept possession of the ball for 64.3 percent of the time and had an outstanding percent of passing accuracy of 81.1 percent contrasted with 67.4 percent for the Impact.
In the 32nd minute, the inevitable happened, Spanish superstar David Villa scored he first goal of the match on assists from Mehdi Ballouchy and Patrick Mullins. NYC’s veteran goalkeeper Josh Saunders noted, “They [Impact] got frustrated a little bit when we got the goal.”
Although Villa’s goal was the only score in the first half, Long Islander Chris Wingert commented on the early offensive play of his team, “This week, we came out on the front foot and put them [Impact] under it. Our best defense is our offense.”
NYC did not dominate the stats in the second half, but managed to add to their lead in the 76th minute as two newcomers to the match combined to produce the next goal. Ghanaian Kwadwo Poku, who had entered the match one minute earlier, fed the ball to U.S. international Mix Diskerud who scored. Diskerud, who scored for the USMNT earlier in the week, remarked, “It’s fun to represent your country and beat two of the best teams in the world. When you score goals, you feel like you can do it more often.”
Diskerud had only entered the match 11 minutes before he scored the goal. Team captain Villa said of his U.S. teammate, “Mix is a fantastic player. He was tremendously helpful to us.”
Each team each scored a goal in the final two minutes for NYCFC to achieve a final victory of 3‐1 and add three points to their season total.
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