Crooks: Lampard Has Shut Up All His Critics With Wondrous Play

By Glenn Crooks
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The New York City Football Club leads Major League Soccer with 40 goals. San Jose Earthquakes goalkeeper David Bingham has not allowed more than one goal in any of the last six matches.

The high-powered attack recently led by Frank Lampard clashes Friday night with the Quakes at Avaya Stadium in San Jose. WFAN.com will carry the match, starting with head coach Patrick Vieira's segment at 10:45 p.m.

Lampard scored three times in the 5-1 rout of Tim Howard and the Colorado Rapids last Saturday at Yankee Stadium -- the first hat trick in club history. He was rewarded with the MLS Player of the Week honors while also being named the Etihad Player of the Month in a vote of New York City supporters -- a group that routinely vilified Lampard due to his late arrival in 2015 and a prolonged absence this season due to injury.

MORE: 'Soccer In The City' Podcast: NYCFC Gets MLS' Undivided Attention

Chelsea FC's all-time leading scorer did not appear for New York City until the 13th match of 2016. He was a reserve in the 7-0 debacle against the New York Red Bulls and played 15 minutes -- and was booed mightily upon his entrance.

"I don't think the fans are aware of the injury I had," Lampard said after the May 21 match at Yankee Stadium. "If I am getting booed for being injured, there's not much I can do about that."

Lampard was clearly annoyed.

"I had a nasty injury -- an eight-to-10-week injury," he said. "I've been training morning and afternoon to get fit. People don't see that."

Thus, it was another teaching moment for the club. NYCFC and the City Football Group failed to assuage the negative feedback from those who plunked their earnings down for a season ticket with an image of Lampard in the Bronx last season. In the inaugural year, greater transparency regarding the possibilities that Lampard could remain with Manchester City until the conclusion of the EPL season was necessary.

Likewise, the communication regarding this season's injury, suffered in the early stages of the preseason, could have been reported in a more accurate manner. Rather than provide hope from week to week, it would have been wiser to simply classify the injury for what it was -- serious, with a subsequent prolonged absence from the squad.

Lampard had become a villain -- the high-priced Designated Player making more in one season than the entire Sporting KC roster and regarded by some as the worst DP signing in MLS history.

Lampard is now fit and has muzzled the critics with recent performances that have elicited delightful memories of Chelsea days' past.

He has scored eight goals in his last eight matches, moving into second place all-time on New York City's goal scoring list. David Villa has 31 goals followed by Lampard with 11, and Tommy McNamara has tallied nine times.

The return of Lampard to full health as part of a midfield triangle that includes Andrea Pirlo and Andoni Iraola has propelled City to the top of the table in the Eastern Conference. Lampard is perhaps the top goal-scoring midfielder in the history of the global game and the opening finish against Colorado was an archetypal example.

From the right side of the field, Lampard gauged his entry into the area as he saw Pirlo dummy the ball to an overlapping Diego Martinez, who bent a service for McNamara at the near six. Lampard anticipated the McNamara re-direction off the head and arrived at the precise moment to half-volley the score with the inside of his right foot at the back post.

The 37-year-old Lampard has disembarked and it is a safe conclusion that Rafa Marquez and others have now eclipsed the England international among the flawed DP acquisitions.

Throw-Ins

-- Villa, suspended for the Colorado match, will be back in the lineup Friday night. Vieira will also be on the sidelines following his one-match suspension for leaving the technical area during an emotional moment in the 4-1 loss to the Red Bulls two weeks ago.

-- Maxime Chanot, who debuted against Colorado after just one training day with his new club, will likely start Friday along side Frederic Brillant. Center back Jefferson Mena and fullback Ronald Matarrita will likely be sidelined with injuries.

-- Chris Wondolowski, the All-Star forward that Chanot and Mena will need to monitor Friday night, scored a second-half equalizer against the Houston Dynamo last week. Wondo has now scored against 21 MLS teams, tying Kei Kamara of the New England Revolution for the all-time MLS mark.

-- Wondolowski has scored double-digit goals in every season since 2010. During that span, he has 111 goals, the most in MLS. Robbie Keane of the LA Galaxy is next with 80.

-- The call should have been a straight red for Chicago's Khaly Thiam on the foul suffered by  Red Bulls midfielder Dax McCarty. The MLS Disciplinary Committee ruled this week that Thiam will be suspended for one game and fined an undisclosed amount.

McCarty will miss the next 4-6 weeks with a broken leg.

For all things futbol and NYCFC, please follow Glenn on Twitter at @GlennCrooks