Has it really been eight years since Fabian Taylor and Cornell Glen wore Metro's red and black? Let's recall.

Although Metro ended 2003 with its usual first round playoff exit, there was much hope. The team made its first Open Cup final, Bob Bradley seemed to know what he is doing, and, in Amado Guevara, the team finally had that midfield maestro that had eluded them before. What they didn't have was a bona fide goalscorer.

With Clint Mathis and Andrzej Juskowiak leaving for Germany, Metro was left with two forwards: Mike Magee and John Wolyniec. The former had an excellent rookie year, tallying seven goals as a teenager. The latter came on as of late, scoring five -- plus two in the Open Cup run. Yet Bradley was not satisfied. So he took the opposite approach from a year ago, when he spent the whole offseason looking for a playmaker before settling on Guevara. This time he decided to go for quantity. So, in a short time, three forwards were signed.

One was Sergio Galvan Rey. Metro ponied up an exorbitant transfer fee for his services, and his enormous contract crippled the salary cap even after he departed after 2005. But the supposed King of Goals was beyond terrible in 2004, scoring just twice (one of those a penalty). The other two forwards were Taylor and Glen.

Taylor, a Jamaican, was signed on loan from Harbour View. He had already scored nine goals in 29 caps for the Reggae Boyz, and was the leading scorer in the Jamaican league. "Fabian has proved on both the club and National team level that he is able to score goals," said Nick Sakiewicz at the time. While Magee and Wolyniec started the opener (and both scored in a 3:1 win in Columbus), Taylor came off the bench. A week later, with Metro down at home to DC 1:0, Bradley inserted the Jamaican at halftime.

It looked to be the stuff of legends: Taylor tied the game five minutes after coming on and got his second soon after. Metro would win 3:2, and many thought that we had a potential Golden Boot winner on our hands.

Glen, a Trinidadian, with 11 caps to his name, shone in the CONCACAF Champions Cup against Chicago, scoring a hat-trick for San Juan Jabloteh. Bradley immediately scooped him up. "He is a young promising player, who we look forward to developing over the coming years," Sakiewicz said.

Glen's debut came in April against New England, but his coming out party seemed to be a month later in San Jose. There, Metro and the Quakes played the first 5:5 game in league history, with Glen opening the scoring on a long shot and then ending it with a sublime heel goal as time was about to expire. Taylor also scored in the game, on a rocket from outside the box. It looked like Metro found their strikers.

Except you know the story: they didn't. The San Jose game was one of only three the duo started together, all in May. From then on, both spent time injured. Taylor ended league play with just five goals in 21 games, but only eight starts. Glen got six in 18 games, ten starts (he did tally a rather memorable goal against LA that completed a Metro comeback from two goals down to win 3:2). When the playoffs rolled around, Taylor couldn't play because of injury. Glen and Wolyniec (who ended with ten goals) started Game 1, as Metro lost to DC on a controversial non-call on a clear offside. Bradley reverted to a lone striker in Game 2, Glen came on, only to end the game injured. And Metro was out in the first round once again.

And... that was it for the duo. Taylor was quietly sent back to Harbour View. Glen was traded to Dallas on draft day for a pick that became Tim Ward. (Metro tried very hard to get rid of Galvan Rey, but his contract proved prohibitive.)

Taylor stayed in Jamaica until 2008, when he made a switch to Norway with Notodden. He did famously tells us that he wanted to play in Europe because "that's where the bucks is", but we are not sure if the Norwegian second division is what he had in mind. He went back to Harbour View in 2011. Glen started to be passed around MLS like the French disease, going from Dallas to Columbus (where he was briefly teammates with Wolyniec) to Colorado to Los Angeles (Wolyniec again!). There he rediscovered his form in perfect time to make the Trinidadian World Cup team, and actually played well in the 2006 tournament. But more injury setbacks, a return to Jabloteh, another stint in MLS with San Jose, back to Jabloteh...

Perhaps this instance should be renamed "Underachieving Metro Files".