Metros lose on overtime blast, 2:1
June 28, 2003
Tim Howard stood on his head in what might be his final Metro road game and the MetroStars fought off the onslaught for 93 minutes. Sadly, Ante Razov scored in the fourth minute of overtime to give Chicago Fire a 2:1 win. Ricardo Clark scored his first goal for Metro, an amazing shot which has to be a favorite for goal of the year.
With Steve Jolley injured, Kenny Arena took over in central defense, a move that would haunt the Metros at the end of the game. Tim Regan took over for the injured Joey DiGiamarino on the left. Clint Mathis came back from the Confederations Cup and started, as did Howard (but for how long the latter will do so is a question).
After an early onslaught, Chicago opened the scoring in the 35th minute, as ex-Metro Andy Williams continued to pile up assists against his former team. Williams found Justin Mapp on the right wing, as two Metro defenders cluelessly looked on. Mapp took the ball down and crossed it to Damani Ralph, who easily tapped it in.
The Metros tied the game in the 60th minute as the Fire failed to clear a ball in the box. Clark pounced on the rebound outside the penalty area and launched a wonderful shot into the upper left corner. Zach Thornton had no chance.
Howard had to make a number of saves in regulations as Chicago was dangerous on every one of their 12 corner kicks. As the game went into overtime, he made what seemed to be a game-saving stop on Kelly Gray's shot, leaping across half the goal line. Unfortunately, just a minute later, Arena reverted to his performance versus the same Fire just two weeks ago as he gave Razov too much space and allowed him to shoot with his left. Razov's cannon of a shot landed in the one place Howard couldn't reach it, the upper left corner.
Lineup: Howard, Regan, Forchetti, Arena, Ziadie, Clark, Williams, Lisi, Guevara, Magee, Mathis. Subs: Bartolomeu, Moreno.
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