Villa scores twice, New York City beats Seattle
David Villa didn’t let the rain bother him Saturday, scoring twice in leading New York City FC to 2-1 win over defending MLS champion Seattle. The Spanish striker scored his 50th and 51st MLS career goals in the second half as New York rallied for a win to move into third place in the Eastern Conference.
Seattle led at half time after Cristian Roldan’s 40th-minute goal. But Villa tied it with a penalty kick in the 52nd. And 25 minutes later, he volleyed home Jack Harrison’s cross.
At Toronto, Jozy Altidore and Jordan Hamilton scored second-half goals as league-leading Toronto FC beat D.C. United 2-0 to stretch its home unbeaten streak to nine games.
Sebastian Giovinco assisted on both goals. The game marked captain Michael Bradley’s 100th in all competitions for Toronto. It also was the first opportunity for coach Greg Vanney to field all three designated players - Bradley, Altidore and Giovinco - since May 3 due to injuries and international duty.
And the three stars engineered the breakthrough goal in the 60th minute after Bradley broke up a D.C. United attack. He fed the ball to Giovinco, who split the defense with a perfect pass to Altidore. The US international pushed the ball ahead with a fine first touch and then calmly beat Hamid from the edge of the box for his seventh of the season.
Hamilton made it 2-0 on glancing header in the 85th. In other games, Chicago retained second spot with a 2-1 win over New England, while the top three teams in the Western Conference had to share the points: Sporting Kansas City finished 0-0 with San Jose, FC Dallas was held 1-1 by Vancouver and Houston was held 2-2 by Los Angeles.
At Foxborough, Nemanja Nikolic and Luis Solignac scored as Chicago handed New England its first home loss of the season. Nikolic scored his MLS-leading 13th goal in the 18th minute, beating an offside trap and, after having his initial shot blocked, firing in the rebound. Three quick passes found Solignac in front of the goal as he finished from close range in the 61st.
Alan Gordon went on in the 80th minute and scored nine minutes later to give Colorado a comeback 2-1 victory over Portland. Gordon headed in a cross over a defender for his second straight late winner in MLS play.
He ripped off his jersey and went into the crowd to celebrate, for which he was given a yellow card. On June 3, Gordon entered late and scored in the 86th in a 21 victory over the Columbus Crew.
Atlanta United had a 3-1 win over Columbus in a game delayed 22 minutes because of lightning, and Jonathan Spector scored in the fourth minute of stoppage time for his first MLS goal to give Orlando City a 3-3 draw with Montreal. — AP