Metro loses late lead, then game, to Dallas, 2:1
May 24, 2006
How many leads can this team blow? Playing against top-of-the-league Dallas, Metro dominated the early stages of the game and took the lead late into the second half, before succumbing to the Hoops on two late goals.
With Amado Guevara's suspension prolonged, the only difference from Saturday's game saw the return of Tony Meola in goal. The first half began with a crisp display of possession and passing not seen yet from the team this year, and it paid off in the eighth minute. Mark Lisi sent in a perfect forward pass through the Dallas defense, founding Seth Stammler, who slammed it home for his third in two games. New York continued to attack and impress for the first half hour of the match, when Dallas finally woke up and started to put in some advances of their own, but not enough to change the score.
The game changed with two second-half substitutions. First, in the 65th minute, Metro was forced to replace banged-up Carlos Mendes with Taylor Graham. Then, five minutes later, Dallas went to three in the front, bringing on Roberto Mina. However, Mo Johnston elected to stay with three in the back, and his team paid dearly. In the 76th minute, mammoth Kenny Cooper was left completely unmarked in the box and headed in the equalizer. And with three minutes left in regular, Carlos Ruiz spun around the hopeless Graham, who ended up on the ground as Ruiz slammed home the winner. And that was all she wrote.
Eight games this year, and in four of them Metro has blown leads to lose points. Just like watching Metro? Hardly; these lost leads are more frequent and alarming than anything over the ten Metro years.
Lineup: Meola, Jolley, Mendes, Parke, O'Rourke, Lisi, Henderson, Stammler, Djorkaeff, Peguero, Buddle. Subs: Graham, Magee.
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