New York City (0) 1 Villa 86
DC United (0) 1 Birnbaum 58
Attendance: 28,632
Admission: $80
Programme: None
Mileage: 17/1,452
New ground: 326 (40th abroad)
The purpose for our trips to New York over the last four years has always been tennis and the US Open, but that has not stopped us from taking in some soccer. Our adopted team, the Red Bulls, were unemployed on this trip so it was a date into the Bronx to see New York City at the Yankee Stadium.
The Yankee Stadium is a fantastic home to baseball, but as a football stadium it is no surprise that Sheikh Mansour is looking to relocate his New York City football club to a purpose-built stadium elsewhere in the Bronx, in fact just around the corner from its present base.
A rectangular football pitch just doesn’t fit comfortably into the shape of a baseball diamond and along one touchline, the one in which we were sitting, you are either within touching distance of the player taking a corner or in need of binoculars.
That said, given that it is a relative new-build (2009), it feels like a stadium with a substantial history and, even though my baseball loyalties lie with the Mets, it is one in which, one day, I must see a ball game.
There was, of course, another attraction to this game, that of the appearance of Wayne Rooney in a DC United shirt and a spectacular third minute overhead kick that went narrowly wide announced his quality.
But he, and David Villa in the New York City side, cut frustrated figures as their thought process were two yards in front of their respective team mates. For an hour, far too many passes were misplaced, overhit or just long punts forward into no man’s land.
The respective number 10’s, Maxi Moralez for NYC and Luciano Acosta for DC attempted to pull a few strings from midfield but largely flattered to deceive.
Previous MLS games seen had left me with a judgement that the League represented middle-Championship but for an hour this fare would have made for a mundane League One encounter.
New York, as a team sitting third in the table (and at home) against a DC team whose league position has improved greatly since the arrival of Rooney, were probably the most threatening but their muted attacks were thwarted by some stout defending and a decent goalkeeper in Bill Hamid.
Rooney, as said cutting a frustrated figure isolated up top, is not being utilised to his best. If he was dropped behind the main striker rather than being the lone man, I think he would be more effective.
Inevitably, after the dull first period, it was a Rooney free-kick delivered inch-perfect into the box that found the head of Steve Birnbaum to deflect the ball into the net that had been vacated by the New York goalkeeper Sean Johnson who had come for a ball he had no hope of claiming.
The goal finally sparked the game into the life as New York City searched for an equaliser. DC’s goal led a charmed life until four minutes from time when NYC were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box from where Villa picked his spot over the wall and into the bottom corner.
New York deserved their point; the tiny knot of DC supporters deserved their’s and Rooney looked a happy enough man as he left the field, leaving smiles all round despite the rain that had fallen throughout the match.
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