Encroachment, failure, and despair
November 8, 2012
At some point, all these losses stop hurting and you just feel a numbness through your body, the latest defeat piled on top of the ones that came before. Oh? This is the way this one ends? Haven't heard that one before, but sure, why not? What's 16 seasons of failure? Hello, number 17!
Of course, the moment that will be talked about most is the encroachment. Tied game, 20 minutes left, and Kenny Cooper is taken down on a breakaway by Bill Hamid at the edge of the box. Straight red, obvious penalty... and Cooper nails it, Metro is up a goal, and up a man, and maybe, just maybe...
Stop!
You know how it ends. You know how it always ends...
So, yes, encroachment. Ref Mark Geiger, forever etching his name into Metro lore, calling encroachment (encroachment!) on the penalty kick. And Cooper has to retake it, and it's promptly saved... Of course. Of course. What else could it have been?
And then, a few minutes later, a red card to Rafa Marquez for an idiotic tackle, and now the one-man advantage is gone, and...
And we should still have a chance, shouldn't we? They've been playing terrific, even if they couldn't find the back of the net. The Joel Lindpere shot that trickled wide by mere centimeters. The point-blank Dax McCarty shot, saved by Hamid. And Titi Henry! We have Titi Henry!
Stop!
You know how it ends!
Two minutes left, defensive breakdown (oh, how much it would help to have an extra man back there on this play!) and Nick DeLeon...
17 years, 17 years one after another, one a little better, one a little worse, but so many of them just jumbled together into one horrible mess of a failure that is Metro, Red Bull, whatever...
It ends with Roy Miller (Roy Miller!) skying a free kick into the stands.
That's how it ends.
Lineup: Robles, Pearce, Holgersson, Marquez, Lade, Tainio, Lindpere, McCarty, Cahill, Cooper, Henry. Subs: Miller, Digao.
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