Wolyniec leads Angelless Metro to win over DC
July 22, 2007
Do you remember the last time Metro beat DC at Giants Stadium? It was the second game of the 2004 season, Fabian "that's where the bucks is" Taylor scored two goals, and some 14-year-old tallied his first for the Scum. The other Metro goal in that match? None other than John Wolyniec, whose lone tally today proved to be the only one New York needed in a 1:0 win over the hated rivals.
Carlos Mendes came back to the lineup after recovering from his injury, so Seth Stammler moved back to the midfield and Joe Vide sat. Jozy Altidore, fresh off a hugely successful Under-20 World Cup, filled in for the suspended Juan Pablo Angel.
Early play saw Metro attack thwarted by an extra thought by Clint Mathis and Dane Richards, and, on the other end, a Hunter Freeman save off the goalline. Our "favorite" referee, Abbey Okulaja, did not call an obvious penalty kick when Altidore was taken down in the box. Then, in the 19th minute, a Claudio Reyna free kick from the right side was redirected by Altidore's head inside the box, and then it was Wolyniec's head that tapped it into the net.
DC had the best of play for the rest of the half. A huge tackle by Jeff Parke, with Jon Conway lying inside the net, kept the Scum from tying the match before the break.
Parke sustained a knock in the first, and was replaced by Vide at halftime, with universal adapter Stammler taking Parke's place in the back, and Vide -- Stammler's. Metro's two best chances of the half ended before the DC box, as first Clint Mathis was taken down at the edge of it (Reyna's free kick sailed way over the net), and then Altidore's first touch after a terrific through ball from Richards was met by a charging Scum keeper Troy Perkins.
DC had their share of chances on the other end, but Conway came up big, first denying former failed Metro trialist Nicholas Adderly on a breakaway, and then making himself just big enough so that Christian Gomez shot high from close range. Extra time saw a scumbag play from DC's Fred, as his idiotic vicious studs-up tackle on Dane Richards earned him an obvious red card, and was indicative of DC's frustration.
Dema Kovalenko made his return to the field as a second-half sub.
Lineup: Conway, Goldthwaite, Mendes, Parke, Freeman, Stammler, Reyna, Mathis, Richards, Wolyniec, Altidore. Subs: Vide, Kovalenko, van den Bergh.
|
