New York City Football Club’s big stars continued their stellar play, and they got a big road win over the Montreal Impact, 3-1 on Sunday night.
David Villa scored his league-leading 13th goal of the season, on a brilliant set up from Tommy McNamara in the 35th minute.
Just as the first half was about to end, in the 47th minute, McNamara set up Jack Harrison for a brilliant goal to make it 2-0.
McNamara switched the play to Harrison, who turned Montreal defender Ambroise Oyongo on a run inside the box before blasting the ball inside the far post for his third goal of the season.
“I’m just trying to play as natural as possible and the guys make it so easy making me feel so comfortable right away,” Harrison said of his goal. “The game was at an important time right at the end of the half. It was important to get that going in order to give us that leeway going into the second half.”
Montreal cut the deficit in half on a shot from distance by Harry Shipp in the 55th minute.
Frank Lampard put the game away with a deflected goal in the 85th minute after receiving a pass from Villa. This was Lampard’s fifth goal in six games.
NYC FC improve to 9-6-6, 33 points, and remain in first place in the Eastern Conference, four points ahead of the Philadelphia Union, who tied the Red Bulls 2-2 on Sunday night. Montreal,fourth in the East, drops to 6-5-8, 29 points, and lost at home for just the second time this season.
“I think our team’s performance was very good today and we worked really hard together,” NYC FC Head Coach Patrick Vieira said. “From Josh (Saunders) to David (Villa), we worked very hard and I was really pleased with the players off the bench who brought things to the team. I think our discipline with and without the ball was really good.
“Whether we’re playing at home or on the road, we don’t really change our identity. We have a distinctly clear philosophy which is to play out of the back and build up with a positive attitude. With a clear ideas and a clear philosophy, the game becomes simpler.”
“Today it was great for the team because we played against a very good team and a team fighting against us for the top of the table,” Villa said. “It was a very important victory for us in a difficult stadium against a difficult team.”
Next up for NYC FC is the final installment of the Hudson River Derby, next Sunday at Red Bull Arena. They split the first two games with the Red Bulls, as they lost 7-0 on May 21 and won 2-0 on July 3, both at Yankee Stadium.
“We need to rest now because we have another tough game on Sunday against the Red Bulls,” said Villa. “We hope to work very well during the week to be healthy on Sunday.”