3:3 Portland New York Jewsbury Goldthwaite Keel(OG) da Luz Henry De Rosario 06.19.11 · League

The record has been spotless so far: Metro has not lost a game under Hans Backe when scoring first. And tonight, did it ever look that the streak would be broken. Deep into injury time, Metro was losing to Portland, when a miraculous late penalty call and a clutch strike by Dwayne De Rosario salvaged the points in a frantic 3:3 draw.

Metro's clever coach made one lineup change: the insertion of De Rosario, back from the Gold Cup, for the injured Luke Rodgers. Metro broke through five minutes in, Austin Da Luz starting the play in midfield, passing to Henry. Titi immediately found De Rosario on the left wing, and then made the run into the penalty area, drawing a defender with him. De Rosario passed to an unmarked da Luz, who continued his run, and decisively placed the shot into the bottom left corner. It was his first professional goal.

Whatever was said in the Portland locker room at half time must have worked, as the Timbers started the second half pressuring. It paid off immediately. In the 48th minute, Jack Jewsbury pounced on a poorly cleared ball to slice a shot through the penalty box and past a befuddled Greg Sutton. A minute later, a Jewsbury free kick dropped in the box, and Metro reject Kevin Goldthwaite flicked it in to end a disgusting sequence.

In the 56th minute, Portland almost got another one, again off a Jewsbury free kick, but Teemu Tainio acrobatically cleared the ball off the line to keep the deficit at one. But Metro wasn't so lucky in the 67th, when Stephen Keel knocked in a Jorge Perlaza cross into his own net.

Metro pulled one back in the 73rd. Henry once again started the play, making a run into the box. He received the ball back from da Luz and slamming it home to reduce the deficit to one. Five minutes later, Portland had a chance to extend the lead, after Sutton brought down Perlaza in the penalty area. But Jewsbury rung the shot off right post, and Metro was still alive.

Alive, but on life support, for Metro couldn't do anything for the rest of regulation. And then, in injury time, Ricardo Salazar, who spent the game calling fouls against New York throughout the match (the disparity was mind-boggling: 25 to 5!), decided to send off Henry for... tapping Adam Moffat with his hand on the back of his head. Seriously. Moffat retaliated by pushing Henry, and got a yellow. Yes, seriously.

But the ejection might have extended injury time by just that much, and after Goldthwaite failed to control the ball, De Rosario took over. He ran to the endline, and sent a cross to the penalty area, where it wad handled by Rodney Wallace. Portland protested to Salazar, the man who has served them so well so far, but to no avail. De Rosario slammed the penalty kick home, and Metro earned a point when all seemed lost.

Whew.

Lineup: Sutton, Miller, Keel, Mendes, Solli, Tainio, da Luz, Ballouchy, Lindpere, De Rosario, Henry. Subs: Rooney.