Metro steers through Rapids, 2:1
May 12, 2018
The last time Metro won in Colorado, George W. Bush was president, the Red Bull re-branding was only in its second year, and John Wolyniec was just starting to go gray. It was the Staten Island Ronaldo who scored the lone goal of that game, back in 2007. Today, Metro had two goalscorers, Daniel Royer and Derrick Etienne, and held on for dear life as a late Colorado goal made a dull game somewhat interesting.
Jesse Marsch elected to stick with the same lineup that suffocated the blue poseurs a week ago, and it paid off immediately. Just five minutes in, off a deep Michael Murillo throw-in, Bradley Wright-Phillips swung the ball from the endline into the box. There, Royer split two defenders and knocked it in past former Metro great, Tim Howard. (Who, back in 2007, was already four years removed from his last Metro game. We're getting old.)
Playing in high altitude, Metro didn't high press as much as they usually do, but the Colorado's ineptitude with the ball didn't make it necessary. It was an incredibly sluggish affair, and Metro looked likely to repeat the single-goal scorelines, when, in the 76th, two substitutes combined. Alex Muyl's cross found an onrushing Etienne, only for the goal to be called back offside... until the referee decided to go to VAR. The call was reversed, and the lead became two.
That finally woke up the home side, which scored in the 85th. After Luis Robles uncharacteristically left a rebound on the doorstep, Jack McBean tapped it in. Metro survived through seven minutes of injury time for their second straight road win, and third straight overall.
And, hey, we got to reminisce about Wolyniec! Gotta pass the time somehow during such a dull game...
Lineup: Robles, Lawrence, Long, Parker, Murillo, Adams, Davis, Valot, Royer, Romero Gamarra, Wright-Phillips. Subs: Etienne, Muyl, Bezecourt.
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