2:1 Houston New York Ching Moreno van den Bergh 03.31.07 · Preseason

Clint Mathis was back, playing as a second-half sub, but the presence of the former Metro great was not enough as current Metro blew the lead, falling to Houston 2:1 to end its Carolina Cup and preseason.

Metro goal came from Dave van den Bergh in the sixth minute, as the Dutchman won the Byron Alvarez Memorial Award for leading the preseason in scoring with four. Late in the first half, Dema Kovalenko was shown a second yellow, but Metro was allowed to play with the entire 11 for the second half, because after all, this is a useless preseason tournament.

So Mathis came on, but Metro couldn't do much, as first Brian Ching in the 70th, and then Alejandro Moreno ten minutes later gave the Dynamo the win. And thankfully, that marked the preseason over as the countdown clock on a meaningful game is finally under a week.