Miserable Metro destroyed by Dynamo, 2:0
August 3, 2012
The history of this club is filled with unfulfilled hope. Year after year it seems that Metro should have the players to take them to the top. And yet... And yet, all the failures haven't stopped people from once again getting excited, for Tim Cahill -- oh, Tim Cahill! -- this surely will be the one that will lead us to glory... Well, he still might, but tonight, the team, outclassed in every area of the field, crashed at Houston 2:0. Oh, will the hope ever be fulfilled?
Cahill's first MLS game came at the expense of Joel Lindpere. Also going to the bench was Kenny Cooper, as Sebastien Le Toux moved up front. Jan Gunnar Solli moved to right midfield, and Heath Pearce returned from injury to play right back. Teemu Tainio made his first appearance since March, deputizing for the suspended Dax McCarty.
It took Houston less than two minutes to break through. It started with a needless foul outside of the penalty area. A ball that could not be cleared by the Metro defense was swung to the far post, where an unmarked Jermaine Taylor tapped it in. Houston doubled the lead in the 28th after Metro reject Mac Kandji pushed down Pearce in the box. No foul was called, play continued, Kandji got the ball back, and, with the Metro defense asleep, swung a cross onto the head of Calen Carr. It could have been worse later in the half when Kandji dribbled through Bill Gaudette and had an empty net to shoot at. Thankfully, Roy Miller, beaten on the Carr goal, raced back to clear the ball off the line.
Metro was absolutely atrocious. Dominic Kinnear's game plan completely outsmarted the supposedly "Clever" Hans Backe, as Metro failed to have any sort of offensive flow. It got a tad better in the second half... but it also could have been much worse many times over, and Kandji's incompetence in front of the net had not changed much from his days with Metro.
So Houston flip-flops Metro to go top of the East. In a schedule quirk, the two teams will play at Red Bull Arena a week from today, so Metro will have their chance for quick revenge. Here's hoping...
Lineup: Gaudette, Miller, Holgersson, Conde, Pearce, Tainio, Lade, Solli, Cahill, Le Toux, Henry. Subs: Palsson, Cooper, Lindpere.
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