2:1 New York NY City Wright-Phillips 2 Mullins 05.10.15 · League

It looked to be simple. An early goal, a dominating performance, a pathetic team that had no chance to match Metro's up-tempo, high pressure, winning soccer. And then, a questionable early red card and tenser-than-neeeded moments. Oh, yeah, and a birth of a new rivalry against the poseurs across the river, started with a 2:1 win. There was that.

Damien Perrinelle, Chris Duvall, Lloyd Sam, and Bradley Wright-Phillips, all rested last week, regained their spots. And the latter two worked to perfection just four minutes in. Sam took the ball up the sideline, then did his patented, unstoppable move by taking it into the box and fooling the hapless defender. He then sent the ball to the middle, where BWP hit it across his body to open the scoring.

Through the rest first half of the first half, it looked to be pure Metro dominance. The blue team looked dumbfounded, not able to string two passes together. And then, Matt Miazga got a questionable yellow card. And then, he got a second questionable yellow card. 36 minutes in, and Metro was down a man.

Jesse Marsch made an immediate change, sacrificing the useless-so-far Mike Grella for another defender in Karl Ouimette. But for the rest of the half, and early into the second, it was Metro's time to withstand a NYCFC onslaught. Thankfully, the blue team's incompetence in the final third prevented any scary scoring chances.

Seven minutes into the second half, Metro doubled the lead. On a counterattack, Sam moved it up the field, and sent it over to Sacha Kljestan on the left side. The blue team's defense immediately started to descend, so Kljestan made a perfect pass into the box to BWP. The record-breaking Englishman got his second of the game.

He could have gotten his third, when he found himself on a two-on-none breakaway with, of all people, Perrinelle. Passing off the to the slow French defender was probably the best option, but Wright-Phillips decided to shoot. His shot was saved.

So that left the blue team with a chance, and they followed through in the 76th minute, when Patrick Mullins scored to reduce the margin to one. Thankfully, even though the visitors held most of the ball, the Metro defense put the clamps down the rest of the game.

One final world to these blue team fans: where the hell were you the first 19 years?

Lineup: Robles, Lawrence, Perrinelle, Miazga, Duvall, McCarty, Martins, Kljestan, Grella, Sam, Wright-Phillips. Subs: Ouimette, Richards, Miller.