NEW YORK – Almost exactly a year ago, David Villa stood on the field at Yankee Stadium after New York City FC’s final game, apologizing for the disappointing inaugural season and making a vow for 2016.
“I promise next year we will be back stronger and we will bring success to this city,” he told the crowd.
Villa delivered on that oath, helping NYCFC make a stunning 17-point turnaround and earn the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference for the Audi 2016 MLS Playoffs following a 4-1 win over Columbus Crew SC Sunday afternoon.
“I’m very happy because I don’t like promising the people a lot. I believe in the strong work day by day. I don’t like to promise the people what will happen in the future,” Villa said. “But last year, in this speech we didn’t have another chance to say sorry to the people and promise we will be better. We are happy today because I don’t like to [make] promises, but the promise is true.”
Villa delivered with his actions and his leadership. In a performance worthy of MLS MVP consideration, the Spanish legend scored 23 goals on the campaign, one behind MLS Golden Boot winner Bradley Wright-Phillips of the rival New York Red Bulls.
“Obviously it would have been great for the club, but as I said during the week I wasn’t looking for that,” Villa said. “I looked after the game if I had gotten it and saw Bradley Wright-Phillips did and I wanted to publicly say congratulations to him.”
With NYCFC needing a win over Columbus to secure the second seed in the East, Villa delivered a passionate pre-game speech in the locker room.
“I told the guys in the locker room before the game to remember the first day in Florida, with the runs in preseason and today play 90 minutes for the runs in Florida,” Villa said. “The motivation today was easy and every player was amazing.”
Villa set up Steven Mendoza for the game’s first goal and then he put the finishing touches on the win with a thunderous strike from outside the box in second half stoppage time.
“When you look at him play, even when he doesn’t score, his work ethic is unbelievable,” NYCFC coach Patrick Vieira said. “David is one of the players who want to be successful for this football club. He wants to win silverware for this club. He’s happy here, his family is happy, he loves the city and he’s a good captain, a good example. I’m really glad we have him on the team.”
