New York City FC regained the top spot in the Eastern Conference, and David Villa scored his second brace in two weeks in a 2-0 win over the Houston Dynamo at BBVA Compass Stadium on Friday.
After a subdued first half on both ends, Villa opened the scoring in impressive fashion in the 52nd minute. He received a pass following a short corner, took a long touch towards goal, and scored from a very narrow angle, nutmegging Houston goalkeeper Joe Willis in the process.
Following that, the Dynamo started to work their way into the game, and Raúl RodrÃguez just barely missed equalizing in the 73rd minute, as his shot bounced off the post.
But Villa iced the victory for the visitors in stoppage time, unleashing a rocket in the 91st minute for his second goal of the night.
Houston Dynamo (7-12-11; 32 points) vs. New York City FC (14-9-9; 51 points)
MLS Regular Season
September 30, 2016 – BBVA Compass Stadium – Houston, Texas
Attendance: 19,616
Scoring Summary:
NYC: David Villa 20 (Andrea Pirlo 11, Jack Harrison 6) 52
NYC: David Villa 21 (Tony Taylor 1, Federico Bravo 1) 90+1
Houston Dynamo: Joe Willis; Sheanon Williams, Raúl Rodriguez, Jalil Anibaba, DaMarcus Beasley ©; Collen Warner, Ricardo Clark (Cristián Maidana 63); Andrew Wenger (Will Bruin 74), Boniek GarcÃa, Alex Lima; Mauro Manotas (Jose Escalante 81)
Unused Substitutes: Calle Brown, Eric Alexander, Keyner Brown, David Horst
TOTAL SHOTS: 11 (Ricardo Clark, Alex, Will Bruin and Collen Warner tied with 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 0; FOULS: 10 (Raúl Rodriguez 3); OFFSIDES: 2 (Alex and Boniek GarcÃa tied with 1); CORNER KICKS: 5 (Cristián Maidana 3); SAVES: 3
New York City FC: Josh Saunders; RJ Allen (Jason Hernandez 89), Frederic Brillant, Jefferson Mena, Ronald Matarrita; Thomas McNamara, Andoni Iraola, Andrea Pirlo; Khiry Shelton (Federico Bravo 77), David Villa ©, Jack Harrison (Tony Taylor 80)
Unused Substitutes: Eirik Johnson, Ethan White, Mikey Lopez, Mehdi Ballouchy
TOTAL SHOTS: 10 (David Villa 5); SHOTS ON GOAL: 5 (David Villa 3); FOULS: 17 (RJ Allen and David Villa tied with 4); OFFSIDES: 3 (David Villa); CORNER KICKS: 3 (Andrea Pirlo 2); SAVES: 0
Misconduct Summary:
HOU: Raúl Rodriguez (caution) 57
NYC: Thomas McNamara (caution) 62
Referee: Robert Sibiga
Assistant Referees: Kevin Klinger, Logan Brown
Fourth Official: Ismail Elfath
