May have been, but it was still way wide. He and the keeper were lined up in my sight line (if Villa wasn't so small, I wouldn't have seen the keeper) and the goal was to the deft of them. The ball wasn't landing anywhere near it if the keeper hadn't of gotten his hands on it.
If you watch the condensed match, they have a nice second angle of the shot from right behind Villa looking at the near post. After he hits it, it's going far to the right of the near post, and Lampson actually has to reach to his left to deflect it, though he took a great angle on Villa, if he doesn't touch it, it's well, well wide. A touch to the endline and he might break free for a cross or collide with Lampson; a cut behind his left leg could have had the defender and the keeper going the wrong way. The shot was probably his worst option. But strikers gonna strike.
This goes to the point I've been making that we are actually playing a fair amount of decent footy. We just aren't finishing. And if we are going to praise Villa when he is finishing, we have to expect more when he isn't. Two goals in 5 games isn't bad, but it isn't great either - on track for 13 - especially since one of them was from the spot. Villa's supposed to be our stone cold finisher. That was just one example of a chance he should have finished. If Shelton or Mendoza had done the same we would be all over them for horrible decision making.
I don't see why that should be off the table. I think I said as much above. 2 goals in 5 games, only 1 from the run of play. That means TMac is outproducing him with 2 goals from the run of play (even more so when you consider Villa's PK was drawn by TMac). I assume (hope) that this is a normal slump. I can't imagine the cold weather helps any. But I am also among those wanting to see him gain better form quickly.
I've said it before when I've slammed Villa for pouting - his goal scoring in MLS is average at best for a guy of his pedigree. Take away his PK's (7 of 18 total) last year and he really was average with only 11 goals from the run of play and free kicks. I feel like he scored at least 2-3 from free kicks, so that means he only got 8-9 from the run of play - that's not great over the course of the season.
Villa has had great looks/shots every game. I don't think it's a question of the offense not getting him in position to capitalize.
Let me know if you see him at any other game. I have a sneaking suspicion he wasn't there to watch the game.
He picked a hell of a game to attend since it isn't an apt reflection of our normal attendance. Then again, the Yankees' stated attendance was a lot higher Wednesday than those that showed up (so said my buddy in a suite - said the place was empty).
And could you imagine the hate from Taylor Twellman and the MLS Transfers twitter account had it been Mix?
