David Villa's scoring and improved efforts by his supporting cast have New York City FC rolling after a slow start. Goal's Ives Galarcep takes a closer look.

While there may be a growing consensus that Frank Lampard just might be the worst designated player signing in Major League Soccer history, it is his teammate who is doing his best to set the bar for everything a DP signing should be.

David Villa has carried New York City FC on his back for much of the 2016 season, but in recent weeks his teammates have responded to his pleas for improved play, and now the second-year club finds itself in unfamiliar territory atop the Eastern Conference standings.

Sunday's victory over the Portland Timbers set a standard for Patrick Vieira's side. It may have been NYCFC's third straight victory, but this one was the most impressive to date. The New York side stood toe-to-toe with the reigning champions, and while the Timbers aren't exactly in fine form themselves, it still spoke volumes that NYCFC could travel cross-country and deliver the kind of result that now has it tied for first place with the Montreal Impact.

"The team played together, the team worked together and the team fought together, and this was the most important thing," Villa said after Sunday's win, which saw him score his eighth goal of the season, tied for the league lead.

As expected as Villa's stellar form was, it is the continued improvement of lesser-known teammates that has NYCFC looking like a much stronger team of late. Thomas McNamara is blossoming into a consistent attacking threat with each passing week, while the defense has started to solidify, with veteran Jason Hernandez and R.J. Allen among the standouts Sunday.

"A lot of the hard work we've been putting in since day one of the preseason is beginning to pay off," Hernandez said. "We're starting to have some rewards for all the efforts we put in week by week. We just feel really fortunate to come into a tough place to play, withstand a good team and come away with the full three points."

NYCFC coach Patrick Vieira deserves real credit for the club's recent surge. Even when his team was mired in a seven-match winless streak, the former Arsenal standout never wavered in his belief that his side could achieve more and was showing signs of improvement. Sunday's victory in Portland also showed that NYCFC can win in different plays. Normally a team that wins the possession battle, the New Yorkers were dominated by the Timbers in terms of keeping the ball, but their defense and pressure kept Portland from capitalizing on that control.

“We have to accept that sometimes the game is not going to go the way we want it," Vieira said. "We have to accept that other teams will dominate possession, but it’s about how can we answer that lack of possession. This is why we defended quite well. They had the possession, but from [goalkeeper Josh Saunders] to David, everybody worked tremendously hard and we managed to take three points. That was a really, really good team performance without the ball.”

Sunday's win is made even more crucial by the fact it kicks off a very tough stretch that will next see NYCFC travel to Toronto for a Wednesday night clash with a dangerous TFC side, and then a return home for the first New York derby of the season, at Yankee Stadium against the Red Bulls.

Last year, the Red Bulls dominated the series, winning all three meetings, but as things stand it is NYCFC playing the better soccer and sporting the better record. NYCFC can't exactly look ahead to Sunday's derby, not with Sebastian Giovinco and TFC looming Wednesday, but the midweek clash will carry significantly less pressure now that Vieira's squad has already secured six points from its recent road matches against D.C. United and Portland.

Now, the talk is less and less about Lampard, and when he will be back, but more about NYCFC rounding into a strong and well-rounded team that is made up of much more than just a few big names.

Kei Kamara didn't arrive in the New England area until late Thursday night, but he didn't need very long to get acclimated to his new surroundings.

Fresh off the blockbuster trade that sent him to the Revolution from the Columbus Crew, Kamara enjoyed a positive start to his new experience, helping the Revs post a 2-0 victory against the Chicago Fire that snapped a six-match winless slide.

Kamara was active throughout the match, fitting in well with New England's midfielders and taking a lot of attention away from them as Chicago's defenders tried to cope with his presence in the penalty area.

"I thought he was really good tonight," Revs coach Jay Heaps said after Kamara's New England debut Saturday. "They're going to key on him, and when teams key on him, it opens space for Lee (Nguyen). I thought Lee had one of his better games because there was so much space there. Kei's going to occupy two, sometimes three players, and that right off the bat helps us.

"Then I thought Kei was excellent in keeping the plays alive," Heaps added. "I thought that was my favorite part about tonight, was how he battled for loose things, he kept things alive, and then when he keeps it alive, it gets Lee in the game, Diego in the game, Juan in the game, and that really helped out our entire attack."

"(Kamara) did create more space for everyone, more chances as well," Nguyen told CSN after Saturday's match. "Guys are going to have to key on more than one player on our team now."

Kamara and Nguyen worked very well together in their first match as teammates, a connection that will bear watching after the falling out Kamara had with Columbus Crew playmaker Federico Higuain. Kamara's comments about not receiving much help from Higuain raised plenty of eyebrows around the league, and it should be noted that he received 11 passes from Nguyen on Saturday, four more than he received from Higuain in any match this season with Columbus.

It wasn't long ago that Patrick Vieira stood firm in his belief that his team was playing well and results weren't telling the full story of how his NYCFC team was playing. Now you can count Caleb Porter as a coach in a similar position.

The Timbers suffered their third straight loss Sunday, and Porter was at his most defiant, declaring that the Timbers deserved much more out of Sunday's match than the zero points they wound up with.

“Cruel. Thought it was as cruel of a game as I’ve ever been a part of," Porter said after Sunday's loss to NYCFC. "The reason I feel that is I thought we dominated the game from start to finish. Thought we were excellent. Pressure, possession, chance creation. We dominated. By far our best performance of the year on both sides of the ball.

"I thought the energy we played with, I thought for our guys to put in as much as they put in today for them not to get anything out of the game is very cruel. I thought it was a travesty the way the result played out.”

Porter's frustration was understandable because Sunday's effort was the team's best since beating San Jose a month ago, but Portland's dominant possession and total shots edge couldn't offset some tough defending and some moments of brilliance from NYCFC.

The Timbers won't be ringing alarm bells just yet despite sitting in ninth place in the West a third of the way into the season, but they should start to feel the heat as the playoff pack in the Western Conference pulls away. The Timbers are currently five points behind sixth-place Real Salt Lake for the final playoff spot in the West, but RSL has two games in hand.

Portland will look to turn things around against Cascadia rival Vancouver, which has hit a hot streak of its own with three straight wins. The Timbers must also be wary of the looming departures of Darlington Nagbe, Jermaine Taylor, Darren Mattocks and potentially Alvas Powell, who have all been named to their prospective preliminary Copa America squads. The Timbers will likely play at least two matches without that group, putting even more importance on securing three points against the Whitecaps next week.

Player of the Week: Kekuta Manneh. The Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder enjoyed a heck of a week, assisting on a midweek game-winner against Chicago, then torching Toronto FC's normally stingy defense with two goals and an assist in a 4-3 romp.

Team of the Week: Vancouver Whitecaps. A pair of victories, including one in Toronto, has the Whitecaps now on a three-game winning streak and erasing the memories of a slow start to the season.

Rookie of the Week: Keegan Rosenberry. The Philadelphia Union rookie faced a plethora of superstars this past week and held his own against them all. His defense was very solid, and he also contributed to the attack, scoring the equalizer against the LA Galaxy on Wednesday.

Goal of the Week: Sebastian Giovinco: