DC United 2 New York City 1: Hosts seal MLS play-off spot

Lampard’s early strike, incidentally New York’s fastest in their fledgling existence, will have done little to instil confidence in a DC side that had failed to win any of their previous six matches but, through a combination of inventive attacking play and woeful defending, the hosts looked threatening.

Villa’s penalty followed a controversial equalizing penalty in the 88th for the Whitecaps, and afterward he was looking forward rather than dwelling on the calls.

Almost four inches of rain had fallen on the D.C.-area over the past 24 hours, and the 50-year-old venue seemed to have soaked in every drop of it. By game’s end, murky puddles had formed on the pitch; from the seats above, water had filtered through cracks in the concrete and dropped from ceiling tiles into the venue’s interior corridors. “And believe. Believe that if we win the three games, those 46 points can be enough to get in the playoffs”. “We’ve tried just about everything short of an exorcism”.

It figures to be hard with remaining opponents United, Orlando and New England all ahead in the standings, but NYCFC is 3-1-1 against the group thus far. Lampard could be coming off his best MLS match, and Andrea Pirlo has three assists on the winning streak after the Italian playmaker managed two in his first eight.

The Chelsea legend took just 48 seconds to open the scoring at RFK Stadium when he pounced on the rebound after D.C. goalkeeper Bill Hamid parried David Villa’s right-footed shot straight into his path. United have been outscored 13-3 in their current run of futility, and were shut out 2-0 by Montreal last weekend. “I think that it led to a few guys being really exhausted”.

“I can’t explain the starts, we’ll continue to work on them”, an exasperated Olsen said at his post-match press conference.