Late White strike rescues a point vs Orlando, 1:1
October 18, 2020
It was not going to happen. Down a goal, the listless Metro offense couldn't break through yet again. Orlando packed it in; the outcome was obvious. Until it wasn't, five minutes into injury time when a terrific Brian White shot made its way through the penalty area to earn Metro a 1:1 tie. To call it unexpected would be an understatement.
But firsts things first: let's talk about what happened prior. There was minimal squad rotation from midweek, as Dru Yearwood, Jared Stroud, and Brian White made way for Sean Davis, Caden Clark, and Daniel Royer.
Since ABSOLUTELY NOTHING INTERESTING happened in the first half, let's talk about the Peter Principle. You know, the concept in management that everyone gets promoted to their level of incompetence. Tonight's example is... Tom Barlow.
Barlow was a good player in college, scored lots of goals, and got promoted (taken in the draft). He was a good player in the minors, scored lots of goals, and got promoted (signed to the first team). And now... yeah, we've reached the Peter Principle with Barlow. Nice guy, sure, good teammate, why not, but a goalscorer at the MLS level? Nope, just promoted to his level of incompetence. No offense, Tom, and not your fault really. You make a good substitute, but a starter you're not. Moving on...
Eleven minutes into the second half, an idiotic foul at the right edge of the box led to an Orlando penalty kick that Nani converted. The Metro defense, which has been rather strong recently, allowed only one quality chance the rest of the way, but substitute Stroud tracked back to make a last-second tackle.
As for the Metro offense, the less said he better. (Samuel Tetteh? No, not the Peter Principle at stake here, just proof that scoring seven goals in the Austrian league is not exactly a precursor to MLS success. Moving on...) So it all looked doomed, when Metro earned a corner kick deep into injury time. With even Ryan Meara pushing up, a shot was blocked, and landed with Jason Pendant. The Frenchman sent it into the box, where White corralled it, turned, and fired a shot across his body that went around an Orlando defender and into the net. A point was rescued.
Try not to think which other players the Peter Principle applies to, please.
Lineup: Meara, Pendant, Tarek, Parker, Duncan, Davis, Rzatkowski, Clark, Valot, Royer, Barlow. Subs: Fernandez, Stroud, Tetteh, White.
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