Enviado: 01 de Agosto de 2015, 14:25
New York City FC - Montreal Impact
Ahead of a recent home game with Toronto FC I wrote the following about NYCFC........
"This was meant to be the debut for Frank Lampard, but a minor knock has delayed that for another 7 days +, however, the official signing of Andrea Pirlo was announced this week and the prospect of both being available soon is a major boost both for the club and MLS football in general and neither are the type to ever give less that 100%. The starting eleven today will be fighting hard to keep their places and tickets will already have been sold with the crowd expecting to see the former EPL star and this will still be a bit of an occasion.
These two teams met three weeks ago in Ontario with NYC winning 2-0 , they were tactically very solid there, pressed incredibly well and David Villa who remains a top class striker took his two chances and to be honest, at 3-4 years younger than the other two "superstars" , he should still be playing at a higher level, he could score in MLS almost in his sleep ! Anyway, I liked that performance, defensively they allowed TFC little and dominated the match early and through the key middle part of the second half and on the road. The defence has also been tightened up with the signings of a pair of Spanish full backs in the incredibly experienced Andoni Iraloa and Angelino this week ."
They drew that 4-4 (!) and the defence is still very much a work in progress judged by that and their next home game a 5-3 defeat of Orlando City last weekend, but goals at the other end of the pitch are clearly not an issue and we saw a huge impact from Andrea Pirlo who, in just over 30 minutes of action set up any number of chances and oozed class. With another week under his belt in training and now Frank Lampard alongside him, there is going to be huge interest in this game and I do not think that any team in the MLS can handle Villa, Lamps and Pirlo at the same time, especially not an Impact side conceding at the rate of two goals per away start, even if it is only for 45-60 minutes !
New York City FC -0.5 ball 2.07 asian line/Sportmarket.