Edsucko Rodriguez, "Hard Man" Pietravallo

When Edmundo Rodriguez was released by the MetroStars on June 21, 1996, he took the title of "Worst Metro Ever" with him. Horribly inadequate, immensely unskilled, he personified the worst of early MLS. But why go on? We discussed it all before.

So it's no surprise, even with Edsucko's escapades now 13 years away, that he made the finals of our "Worst. Metro. Ever." bracket. The suck is legendary, and on his way there, he disposed of three huge contenders to the throne, the recent crappiness of Oscar Echeverry, the waste that was Jaime Moreno's brief Metro career, and Khano Smith, the worst player on the worst team in league history (well, the worst team until Juan Carlos Osorio quit).

But now it's the final, and the other contender to the throne was not good enough to play for that worst team. Juan Pietravallo, who was so horrible that RBNY ate his contract, terminating him in midseason. Who was so atrocious that Osorio publicly bashed him. But was he as bad as Eduscko?

On his run to the final, Pietravallo took down two top seeds, Byron Alvarez and Steve Shak. But now, "Hard Man" is up against the original, the benchmark, the one against who all horrible Metros will be measured up against. A perfect final, if you will: the awfulness that started Metro's existence in 1996 matching up against the horror we're mired in this year. Whoever wins, it will be a worthy selection.

Let's just hope we don't end up revisiting the topic any time soon.