Clark signs, Clark shoots, Clark scores, Metro wins
October 10, 2020
Earlier today, RBNY paid Minnesota $75,000 for the rights to 17-year-old Caden Clark. In a league full of absurd rules, this one is up there: Clark was never in the Minnesota United academy, he just hails from the state. Even though he left years ago, Minnesota kept his territorial rights. Whatever. Metro paid up, Clark joined the first team, and promptly scored on his debut. It was the only goal of the game as Metro stopped a two-game losing streak by upending Atlanta.
Bradley Carnell went with a complete lineup overhaul, starting with Ryan Meara returned from his injury. There were three new defenders: Jason Pendant, Tim Parker, and Amro Tarek, four new midfielders: Sean Davis (also returning from his injury), Marc Rzatkowski, Daniel Royer, and Clark, and... no new forwards? Well, Samuel Tetteh and Tom Barlow were so fantastic in the last game (NOT!), why bother changing?
Absolutely nothing happened in the first half (really: no shots on goal for either team), so we move straight to the second. Two minutes in, Metro got their first shot on goal, as Royer took a well-placed shot from outside the box to cause Brad Guzan to dive and push it out of bounds. On the ensuing corner, Atlanta failed to clear, the ball went to Clark at the edge of the box, where the youngster volleyed a rocket into the net.
And then Guzan complained. Oh, we remember two years ago when the bald buffoon cried goalkeeper interference on a VAR call that altered both teams' seasons. He did the same today... but this time, the referee would have none of it, and the goal stood.
The goal turned out to be Metro's last shot on goal of the game. Atlanta did even worse: they ended with one, late in the match as a ball slipped through the Metro defense. Meara came out to clear it, then reached to block the rebound. That incident was the host's only good chance of the game, as the patched-up Metro defense played incredibly well.
Who knows what this victory will mean when all is said and done... but right now, those $75,000 look like money well spent!
Lineup: Meara, Pendant, Tarek, Parker, Duncan, Davis, Rzatkowski, Clark, Royer, Tetteh, Barlow. Subs: Stroud, Valot, Yearwood, White, Nealis.
|
