David Villa leads New York City FC passed Atlanta United 3-1

Week 10 of the MLS Season saw our Atlanta United travel to hosts New York City FC. It seems like the Five Stripes can’t find an extended run at home as they’re back on the road again after a four week away skid.

NYCFC put together a beautiful offensive in the final third, leaving Atlanta United scrambling on defense. David Villa curled in a howler from just inside the 17-yard box that hit both posts before falling in for the goal.

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Atlanta tried to respond a few minutes later when Tito Villalba took a long distance chance that skirted just wide of the post.

In the 38’ off a Tyrone Mears throw in, Carlos Carmona nailed a sweet volley from just inside the 17-yard box. Kenwyne Jones positioned himself just right to deflect the ball to Carmona with a slight header to get United on the board.

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The second half had a nightmare start for United. NYCFC put on an offensive onslaught for a solid two minutes missing five chances on goal via a series of deflections and defunct clearances.

In the 59’ NYCFC’s Rodney Wallace deflected a low cross passed Alec Kann for his third goal of the season. If that wasn’t stressful enough, on a string of unfortunate events, Wallace’s pass took a deflection off Tyrone Mears and landed directly in front of Maxi Moralez. After a clean first touch, Moralez finessed the ball toward the far-side post and curled in the club’s second goal in eight minutes.

We haven’t played our best the past few matches, so we asked Tata this thoughts on the teams’ run of form. “In reality, I just want to talk about today’s match. Today there was nothing positive to take out. We were outplayed by a superior team.”

Since Tata wasn’t shy around the microphone, here are his thoughts on the second half:

“The issues weren’t in the 2nd half. We played poorly all game. Even when we scored, it came from a volley from midfield. The other team outplayed us and deserved to win today. They played with more intensity at the point of attack and controlled the ball better than us.”

United fans won’t be thrilled to find out they’ll be traveling once again for their Week 11 match against the Portland Timbers. Thankfully, they’ll get two straight matches at home for the Houston Dynamo and a reverse fixture with NYCFC.

STATS

Shots: 16-9 NYCFC

Shots on Target: 11-5 NYCFC

Corner kicks: 8-3 NYCFC

Fouls committed: 22-15 NYCFC

Saves: 5-4 Atlanta

Clearances: 21-14 NYCFC

Offside: 4-2 NYCFC

Possession: 50-50

Passing Accuracy: 77-73 NYCFC

-Jon J.

Photo: Courtesy of ATLUTD