Hernandez vs Los Angeles

Sadly, it's very difficult to come up with a list of best trades in Metro history (on the other hand, compiling the list of worst trades is difficult as well, but because of their abundance, not scarcity). But if one were to compile such list, it is quite likely that both trades Metro made on April 19th, 2000 would make it. For on that day, the MetroStars acquired Steve Jolley and Daniel Hernandez, in what turned out to be season-turning moves as far as the club's defense was concerned.

Later on that April 19th, Metro lost to Kansas City, dropping their record to 1-4, while allowing a disgusting ten goals in those five matches. The likes of Mohammad Khakpour, Steve Shak, Ramiro Corrales, and the aging Thomas Dooley were no help to Mike Petke; it looked like 2000 would just be a continuation of the horror of 1999. Little did we know that the arrival of two bench players would transform the Metro defense, and, together with the arrival of Clint Mathis that would transform the Metro offense, send off the team onto the best run in its history.

Both Jolley and Hernandez were MLS veterans at that point, but neither had a role with their club. Both were known to Octavio Zambrano from his tenure with the Galaxy; Jolley was drafted in 1997, a few months before OZ took over for Lothar Osiander, and Hernandez in 1998, with Zambrano himself making the selection. Jolley, who moved from midfield to defense and became a regular in 1998 and 1999, suddenly saw his playing time cut in 2000; at the time of the trade he played just four minutes for LA (perhaps the memory of him stepping on the field at the 1999 MLS Cup for the injured Robin Fraser and getting abused on a goal was still fresh in the Galaxy's mind). Hernandez was not in LA anymore, traded to Tampa Bay late in 1999. His time with the Mutiny in 2000 was a bit larger than Jolley; a whole seven minutes.

So with the Metro defense in shambles, Zambrano pulled the trigger to bring two of his former players to New York. Amazingly, he didn't give up much. Jolley came for a future second round draft pick, and Hernandez -- for Daniel Alvarez, a fourth rounder in 2000 who failed to make the Metros and who would never play for the Mutiny, or any MLS team, for that matter.

But both would have roles with Metro. Jolley, wearing an unfamiliar #25, would debut three days after the trade, in a terrific 3:2 overtime win in DC (he would switch to #5 as Khakpour was cut soon after). Hernandez came on board a week later, in a 1:0 loss to LA. After that initial match in midfield, he moved to the backline, and soon Zambrano made a shift from a 4-man group to a 3-man unit, with Hernandez in the middle of Petke and Jolley.

In the 13 matches that featured Petke, Hernandez, and Jolley in the starting lineup, Metro went 10-3, while allowing a little more than a goal per game. In their last five league matches together, spanning the beginning of July, Metro went 5-0, with just three goals allowed. Everything was looking rosy; the team was winning, and we had a young, hungry, American defense clamping down the opposition.

The run ended on July 25th, on Long Island, of all places. Metro was playing Tampa Bay in an Open Cup match, and, already up 3:0, lost Hernandez to a torn ACL. The rest of the season saw Lothar Matthaus come back to defense to flank Petke and Jolley, but it was never the same. Metro still won, but did so with its offense, as they allowed three or more goals in seven of ten matches during the rest of the regular season.

A year later, an early-season injury to Hernandez put a kybosh on the resurrected backline. Orlando Perez became the new left back, Petke slid in the middle, and Hernandez, on his return, moved to defensive midfield. A year later, he became the first of the trio to depart, as Zambrano had a weird change of mind. Not long after entrusting the outspoken Hernandez with the captain's armband, he sent him to New England as part of that awful six-player Mamadou Diallo trade.

Petke would be the next to gone, shipped to DC in the Eddie Pope and Jaime Moreno deal after Zambrano was fired after the 2002 season and Bob Bradley came aboard. Jolley lasted a year longer, but Bradley sent him packing as well, to Dallas for Tenywa Bonseu. But by the time he was shown his marching orders, and during his brief return to Metro in 2006, he was a far cry from the Jolley was saw early in his Metro career.

And as the current Metro defense keeps struggling during its playoff push, we can't help but remember the brief shining moment when the three-headed beast of Petke, Jolley, and Hernandez put fear in the opposing strikers. And we can't help but think what would have happened if Hernandez didn't tear his ACL? And why is Metro history full of such "what ifs"?...