4:2 Toronto New York Morrow 3 Vazquez Veron Royer 09.30.17 · League

For a while there, it looked like Metro had turned it around. Down a goal, but controlling the game, crisply moving the ball through a vaunted Toronto defense... A goal was sure to come!

It did, only for it all to come crashing down soon after. Metro ended an awful, terrible, pathetic September winless, losing to Toronto 4:2. Playoffs? What's the point of making the playoffs if this team has allowed ten goals in its last three games?

Jesse Marsch made wholesale changes from midweek, resting Sacha Kljestan and Bradley Wright-Phillips to give rare starts to Derrick Etienne and the ever-improving Gonzalo Veron. Sal Zizzo and Aaron Long started on defense, pushing Kemar Lawrence and Damien Perrinelle to the bench, and Daniel Royer made his first start since the injury that started this freefall, meaning Alex Muyl finally sat.

Toronto scored a controversial goal in the 32nd minute. An attacker looked to have handled the ball before it dropped to Justin Morrow for a tap-in, but somehow VAR decided to let it stand. Five minutes later, it was Morrow again, jumping on a deflected pass to make it 2:0.

But Metro didn't give up, and two minutes after, Royer sprung Adams, who sprung Veron. The Argentine coolly converted, and Metro was back in.

Substitutions of Kljestan and BWP tilted the game in Metro favor, and it became tied in the 77th, when Veron was taken down in the box. It was Royer's turn to take the penalty, and he coolly chipped it down the middle to tie the game.

So, it looked like Metro could have scored at least a moral victory... for all of three minutes, when Long grabbed Jozy Altidore's shirt in the box, and Victor Vazquez beat Robles. In injury time, Morrow got his third with another tap-in, to make it academic.

A horrible ending to a horrible a month...

Lineup: Robles, Zizzo, Long, Murillo, Lade, Adams, Martins, Davis, Royer, Etienne, Veron. Subs: Wright-Phillips, Kljestan, Keita.