Same old Metro shutout by Revs, 1:0
July 14, 2007
In the week when Major League Soccer is buzzing with excitement and its honchos try to sell not only David Beckham, but the quality of play in the league to mainstream America, here in New Jersey we have same old Metro. A good start this year is proving to be a mirage, as their summer woes continued, going scoreless for the third time in four games, playing unimaginative soccer with no sense of urgency, in a 1:0 home loss to New England.
Bruce Arena made two changes from last week's game, as Jon Conway replaced Ronald Waterreus in goal and Seth Stammler was pushed back into central defense for the injured Carlos Mendes, as Joe Vide made his first start of the season in defensive midfield.
The Revs had a number of chances to score early, first off a Claudio Reyna turnover and then on a shot that Seth Stammler blocked off the goalline. But slowly, Metro regrouped, and started to string passes together. They hit the woodwork twice, first on a Clint Mathis short-range redirect of a Hunter Freeman cross, then when Juan Pablo Angel made something out of nothing and hit the upper right corner of the frame.
Sadly, all of Metro's work went for naught, and in the 38th minute, a forward pass sliced through the New York defense, and Andy Dorman send a low long shot through the box and past the diving Conway.
We could describe the second half, but what bother? Metro went into a shell, showing no effort on offense, and when a Angel was shown a questionable red card in injury time for a supposed elbow, it was a fitting end to a drab, effortless game.
Lineup: Conway, Goldthwaite, Stammler, Parke, Freeman, Vide, Reyna, Mathis, Richards, Wolyniec, Angel. Subs: van den Bergh, Quaranta.
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