MLS Roundup: David Villa's First MLS Hat Trick Powers New York City FC
A roundup of Sunday evening's MLS action.
New York City 3, New York 2
NEW YORK (AP) — David Villa had his first MLS hat trick to help New York City FC beat the New York Red Bulls 3-2 on Sunday night.
Villa's third goal gave New York City (12-7-4) the lead for good in the 75th minute. He drew a foul in the area when Sal Zizzo was shown a yellow card for a high boot and then converted from the spot.
Villa opened the scoring in the 28th, beating a charging Luis Robles 1-on-1 and tapping a left-footer into the open net.
Bradley Wright-Phillips took a pass Sean Davis cut left and scored from top of the box in 41st minute and rolled in a perfectly placed cross from Tyler Adams from just outside the 6-yard box to give the Red Bulls (11-9-2) a 2-1 lead in the 64th.
Villa tied it in the 72nd minute, racing down the right side, cutting back to evade a defender and blasting it inside the near post.
The Red Bulls had their four-game win streak snapped.
Wright-Phillips has 10 goals in eight career games against New York City.
Zizzo was shown his second yellow card in the 90th minute and will miss Saturday's match against Orlando City.
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Portland 3, Los Angeles 1
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Diego Valeri scored a spectacular 30-yard goal in the 33rd minute to lead the Portland Timbers to a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy on Sunday.
Valeri, who played Wednesday in the MLS All-Star Game against Real Madrid, created space for himself when receiving a pass from Roy Miller. After taking a few strides toward goal, he unleashed a kick that flew beyond the reach of Los Angeles goalkeeper Brian Rowe for his team-leading 12th goal of the season.
''It's always nice to score a nice goal,'' Valeri said. ''When you execute what you are thinking, it's always nice.''
Said Rowe, ''By the time I took a step he had already hit it and it was coming back.''
The game got off to a frantic start, with two goals and one goal disallowed thanks to the newly implemented Video Assistant Referee (VAR) in the first 10 minutes.
Timbers defender and captain Liam Ridgewell, who missed the last eight games because of a quad injury, started the action in the 5th minute when he headed a bouncing corner kick into the roof of the net for his second of the season.
''It's been a long road back. It's nice,'' Ridgewell said of returning. ''My boy said just before I went out, `Go and score a goal'. So did my mom. So, hopefully they can stay a little longer and keep saying it.''
A minute after Ridgewell scored, Joao Pedro threaded a pass behind the Portland defense for Emmanuel Boateng to race onto and slip a shot under Timbers goalkeeper Jake Gleeson to tie the score. It was Boateng's third goal.
In the 10th minute, it appeared Los Angeles took the lead after Gyasi Zardes collected a floating header from Boateng just in front of the net and knocked it in. But referee Drew Fischer consulted with the VAR and determined Zardes knocked the ball in with his hand, nullifying the goal and earning Zardes a yellow card. It marked the second time a goal has been disallowed after video review since the technology was implemented this weekend.
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''I think (VAR) helped, obviously, in that moment,'' Portland coach Caleb Porter said. ''Going down 2-1 versus staying at 1-1, that was a key moment in the match.''
Said Los Angeles coach Sigi Schmid: ''We're disappointed and Portland was obviously the better team in the first half, superior to us at that time point. But goals change games. The goal that gets disallowed - I mean it's the correct reasoning, but it's a goal that we should have just headed in.''
Portland (3-6-3) added an insurance goal in the 53rd minute. Fanendo Adi charged toward goal, then backheeled the ball into the path of teammate Alvas Powell, who ripped a shot from a tight angle past Rowe for his first of the season.
''People always ask, `Well, how do you close out games better?' Well, you score another goal. That's the best way,'' Porter said. ''In the past, that's what we've done. So we wanted to stay on the front foot and we wanted to create a two-goal margin, which we did.''
The game marked the first appearance for Jonathan dos Santos with the Galaxy (5-5-1). The star midfielder was acquired from Villarreal on July 27.
Kickoff was moved up from 1 p.m. to 11 a.m. because of temperatures expected to be in the mid-90s.
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Kansas City 1, Atlanta 1
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Jacob Peterson scored in stoppage time to lift Atlanta United to a 1-1 draw with Sporting Kansas City on Sunday night.
Peterson, who came on for Julian Gressel in the 67th minute, ran onto loose ball - after an attempted clearance by Matt Besler was deflected into the center of the box - and blasted a left-footer past a sliding Tim Melia into the net in the first minute of injury time.
Atlanta United (10-7-5) is 4-0-2 in its last six games.
Benny Feilhaber came on at halftime and, after Latif Blessing drew a penalty against Leandro Pirez, converted from the spot to give Sporting Kansas City (9-4-10) a 1-0 lead in the 59th minute.
Atlanta had just seven shots and didn't have a shot on goal in the first half.
Kansas City is unbeaten in its last nine MLS matches (2-0-7), dating to a 1-0 loss at Colorado on May 27.
