White's second straight stoppage time tally ties, 1:1
October 24, 2020
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Beric
Frankowski
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Duncan
White
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It was not going to happen. Down a goal, the listless Metro offense couldn't break through yet again. Wait... we wrote this last week, didn't we?
Well, it was much of the same tonight. The final score was different, 2:2, but once again, Metro created something out of nothing in stoppage time, and once again, it was Brian White playing the hero. With bumbling Tom Barlow still stealing the starting role, the second-half subbed earned Metro a point for the second straight week, this time against Chicago.
With three games scheduled for the next eight days, squad rotation was obviously in play. Four changes were made, as Aaron Long returned from his injuries, and entered the starting lineup together with Dru Yearwood, Jared Stroud, and Samuel Tetteh. Amro Tarek, Marc Rzatkowski, Caden Clark, and Daniel Royer sat.
Very early in the game, Stroud played a fantastic cross directly to Tetteh, who was standing in front of an empty goal. Somehow, the Ghanaian made a meal of it, with an awful first touch that did not result with a shot on goal. In fact, in their usual fashion, Metro only had one shot on goal in the entire first half... but rather unusually, it ended in the net. In the 39th, Stroud weaved through traffic and sent a great pass to Kyle Duncan, who lobbed it into the net from the top of the penalty area.
Chicago evened the game in the 51st, when Metro failed to clear the ball, connecting on a goalmouth cross. They grabbed the lead in the 72nd, when Metro failed to clear the ball, and an amazing point-blank Ryan Meara save went for naught as it bounced off the crossbar, back in play, and was knocked into the net. And all seemed lost.
Except it wasn't. Two minutes into stoppage time, a long Rzatkowski shot went off a Fire player and ended up with the onrushing Valot. His header was saved and fell straight to Barlow, with nothing but an empty net in front of him. Barlow missed, of course, but the rebound went to White, who didn't. Another point was rescued, which might prove to be a huge deal with just three regular season games left.
It wasn't ideal to repeat last week, but it'll do.
Lineup: Meara, Pendant, Long, Parker, Duncan, Davis, Yearwood, Stroud, Valot, Tetteh, Barlow. Subs: Clark, Casseres, White, Rzatkowski.
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