Revs whip toothless Red Donkeys, 4:0
June 7, 2009
Another year, another winless trip to Foxboro. This time it was particularly embarrassing as Metro was eviscerated to the tune of 4:0 by the only team in the league that had scored fewer goals than them this season. The crushing defeat means New York will head into the 2010 season having not won at Foxboro since 2002. Furthermore, the Metro regular season road winless streak is now at a staggering 19 games, tying Real Salt Lake (who posted the record during their debut season) for the longest such streak in MLS history.
There were, as always, changes to Juan Carlos Osorio's starting eleven. Metro came out in a 3-5-2 once again, with Jeremy Hall playing the right center back role in place of Carlos Mendes. Mike Petke and the ubiquitous Kevin Goldthwaite joined him as they did against DC. The midfield saw Luke Sassano inserted with Seth Stammler and Albert Celades in central midfield, with Danleigh Borman on the left flank and Nick Zimmerman, apparently having impressed Osorio in the loss against DC, getting the start as Borman's counterpart on the right. The forward pairing shockingly remained static for the third game in a row.
Early on Metro showed some misleading promise, first through Jon Conway's excellent diving save off of a Sainey Nyassi chance in the 12th minute. The beleaguered club followed up a minute later with an offensive series that ended with Juan Pablo Angel barely missing poking in a Dane Richards cross in front of an open goal.
Metro appeared to battle the offensively-challenged Revolution to a standstill as the first half wound down, but disaster struck in stoppage time. Metro defenders were unable to dispossess a pair of Revs attackers at the edge of the box, and the ball eventually made its way to an unmarked Jay Heaps, who fired a shot past Conway for the game's first goal.
The goal seemed to deflate the Metro players, as New England scored three times within twenty minutes of the break. The first goal of the half started with Zimmerman attempting to fend off Heaps near the endline in order to win a goal kick. Heaps cleverly managed to dispossess the rookie midfielder and immediately drove a cross into the path of the onrushing Steve Ralston, who dove over Goldthwaite and headed a ball that banged off the bottom of the crossbar, then the far post and past a helpless Conway.
Taylor Twellman would make the result academic with two goals in the 56th and 64th minutes; the first of his two tallies came off of a long cross from ever-present Metro-killer Shalrie Joseph, the second a poacher's effort that came as the result of a rare Seth Stammler blunder in front of goal.
Metro hero John Wolyniec came on as a late sub and was denied his third goal of the campaign in garbage time as Kevin Alston cleared his shot off the line. It would be the only reply the meek Metro squad mustered over the course of 90 brutal minutes.
Sunday's obliteration at the hands of the previously-inept Revolution means that the road trip to hell continues unabated; after losing to their two biggest rivals by a combined score of 6:0 in the span of four days, the only reason to keep watching (if you are reading this report, it is probably safe to conclude that you're a fellow masochist) is to see what Metro will do for an encore against former head coach Mo Johnston's Toronto FC next Saturday.
Lineup: Conway, Goldthwaite, Petke, Hall, Borman, Stammler, Sassano, Zimmerman, Celades, Richards, Angel. Subs: Ubiparipovic, Wolyniec, Mendes.
|
