Frank Lampard urged his New York City team-mates to move forward
after suffering an embarrassing 7-0 loss to arch-rivals New York Red
Bulls.
Frank Lampard urged his New York
City team-mates to move forward after suffering an embarrassing 7-0
loss to arch-rivals New York Red Bulls.
After
missing the opening 12 matches of the season, Lampard was making his
first appearance of the 2016 MLS campaign, but the former England
international's return from injury was overshadowed as Red Bulls put New
York City to the sword at Yankee Stadium on Saturday.
Amid
a five-game unbeaten streak, the previously high-flying New York City
came crashing back down to earth as braces apiece from Bradley
Wright-Phillips and Dax McCarty gave Red Bulls bragging rights.
Speaking
afterwards, Lampard - who replaced Andrea Pirlo with 15 minutes
remaining and was greeted to a chorus of boos - said New York City had
to get back to what they do best as they vie for top spot in the Eastern
Conference.
"The only plus for me today is that
physically I feel very good. It's been a difficult injury – so to feel
good and feel 100 per cent and to come on and at least play a part is
good for me personally but obviously a very bad day for us," Lampard
said of his return.
"There's a lot to be done now.
The first thing is that the league hasn't changed much. We lost a game,
we lost three points, so we have to put that in perspective when we
look forward as the plus.
"Obviously seven goals
is a huge negative. We need to address the things that let us down
today. We were all very honest here. Now is a tough day, and we need to
address that, but now we need to start getting back to the things that
were helping us get good results.
"Now is the time to take it on the chin and show a bit of character and get a good result."
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SOCCER