NEW YORK – They are the faces of their respective teams and two of the best strikers in Major League Soccer. Since arriving in the league, New York City FC captain David Villa and New York Red Bulls forward Bradley Wright-Phillips have been inextricably linked.
A year ago, Wright-Phillips scored 24 goals to edge out Villa by one for the MLS Golden Boot, while Villa took home the Landon Donovan MLS MVP award. Wright-Phillips finished second in the voting.
Wright-Phillips, though, would like the comparisons to end now.
“He’s David Villa. All the credit he gets he deserves,” Wright-Phillips said on Tuesday. “He’s a world-class striker. He’s won a World Cup, Champions League. Let me say this now, I don’t want to be mentioned in the same breath as him. He’s a different beast.”
Wright-Phillips, whose Red Bulls will host NYCFC in the first regular season edition of the Hudson River Derby on Saturday (1:30 pm ET, FOX in the US, MLS LIVE in Canada) said what separates Villa is “his hunger and appetite for the game.”
While Wright-Phillips might think Villa is in a class of his own, Spain’s all-time leading scorer had plenty of praise to heap on the two-time Golden Boot winner.
“I think he’s one of the best strikers, not only in the league at the moment, but in the history,” Villa said. “His numbers are big for him. He always scores minimum 15 goals in all the years he’s here. One year he scored [27], last year 24. He’s one of the best strikers in the league right now and in the history of MLS.”
Villa said he enjoys the “healthy rivalry” with Wright-Phillips and said the derby matches against the Red Bulls are “so good.”
However, the end goal for NYCFC is the same as it was last Saturday against Seattle and as it will be against Minnesota next Thursday.
“I think it’s more for before the game and after the game. But, finally it’s three points like the last game against Seattle,” Villa said. “We need to focus and do that. It’s important for us and our fans to give a victory on Saturday because in the past we have a lot of losses against Red Bulls. But focus on these three points which are important for us in the league.”
NYCFC is riding the high of a come-from-behind win against the defending MLS Cup champions Seattle – their second consecutive win in as many years against the Sounders. Success against the Red Bulls hasn’t come as quickly.
The New York derby has been decidedly red since NYCFC joined the league in 2015, with the Red Bulls winning six of seven regular season meetings to date and besting NYCFC in the Open Cup last week.
“We enjoy all the difficult games, to play against the good teams and the big challenges,” Villa said. “This is the big challenge because in the past Red Bulls did better than us and we need to change this.”
On Tuesday, Villa doubled down on an earlier assessment that this is the best NYCFC team in the club’s three-year existence. However, he said, the proof comes on the pitch and not on paper.
“I think we have more quality, more talented players. I said this and I believe in my words. I think it’s true, but we need to put it on the pitch,” Villa said. “It’s not only about saying it in the press conference. I think we’ve played well, until now, and I think we have a lot of power in the future because with the passing of the days and the games I think we improve and we are better and better to get ready we hope for the playoffs. We need to show it on the pitch.”
