Awful first half leads to Metro demise in San Jose
May 12, 2002
Rodrigo Faria scored the lone goal on a penalty kick as the Metros played a horrible first half, losing to the San Jose Earthquakes 2:1 and extending their winless streak to three games. The Metros haven't beaten San Jose since 1998.
Playing their first game without Petter Villegas, the MetroStars came out in a 3-5-2, with Brian Kamler and Sam Forko playing the wings. Unfortunately, that did not help, as the first half ended with the Earthquakes up 2:0.
Ariel Graziani, who usually struggles when Mike Petke is in the game, used the defender's red card suspension to his advantage. On his first goal, in the 13th minute, the usually steady Steve Jolley was stripped by ex-Metro Ramiro Corrales for an early lead. His second, with just two minutes left in the half, came on a counter-attack from a Metro corner kick after Joe Addo failed to track back. Graziani's header made it 2:0. Sandwiched in between the goals where three horrendous Metro mistakes, first by Jeff Moore, making his first Metro appearance, losing the ball to the same Corrales; the second had Addo letting the ball bounce on a corner kick; the third had Daniel Hernandez giving up a ball for a San Jose breakaway. On that sequence, the ball beat Tim Howard, but Hernandez redeemed his mistake by tracking back and clearing the ball off the line.
With the infusion of Brad Davis and newly-acquired Mark Lisi at the break, the Metros looked like a different team in the second half. Unfortunately, all they could get was Faria's penalty kick in the 49th minute after Joe Cannon took him down in the box. Faria then played the goat after he missed an empty net after originally rounding Cannon. The Metros continued to press for the rest of the half, but to no avail. Craig Ziadie also made his debut and played rather well on the right side.
The game ended with Diego Serna getting a red card in extra time after pushing down a Quake player. The loss drops the Metros to below .500 for the first time in two years.
Lineup: Howard, Addo, Hernandez, Jolley, Kamler, Forko, Moore, Paule, Ramos, Serna, Faria. Subs: Davis, Lisi, Ziadie.
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