Loons send Metro back to Earth, 1:0
March 13, 2022
Well, that was a letdown. Coming back home after a high-flying beginning to the season, Metro crashed to the ground with a sour 1:0 loss to Minnesota. An early missed penalty kick proved costly, and numerous attacking opportunities were denied by the Loons.
Gerhard Struber went back to three (five) in the back, with Tom Edwards getting his first start of the year as one of the three central defenders. Tom Barlow was sent to the bench.
Metro started the game in a dominant way, and was awarded a penalty kick in the 14th minute after VAR saw a handball in the box. Sadly, a weak Patryk Klimala shot was saved. The rest of the first half was an even affair, with a phenomenal trackback from Dru Yearwood stopping a Minnesota breakaway.
Less than a minute into the second half, Klimala set up Omir Fernandez on the doorstep, but the shot was saved. Then, in the 51st, Metro let a corner kick bounce in the box. It eventually ended up as a one-time shot by Luis Amarilla that beat Carlos Coronel to the short side.
It took Metro a while to wake up after the goal, but when they did, attacks came in bunches. Unfortunately, they were all for naught. Klimala set up another chance at the doorstep, this time from sub Barlow, but it predictably didn't go in. Aaron Long, deep in the box after a throw-in, found himself one-on-one with the keeper, but couldn't convert. There were not one, but two shouts for penalties. On the first, Long was pushed down on a corner kick. On the second, it seemed like a clear hand ball on a John Tolkin cross. However, with Klimala taking penalties, it might not have mattered...
It didn't matter as Luquinhas made his debut after arriving in America just two days prior, or as Coronel made desperate runs into the penalty area on late set piece opportunities.
Well, two wins out of three is better than most expected, right?
Lineup: Coronel, Tolkin, Long, Nealis, Edwards, Nealis, Amaya, Yearwood, Morgan, Fernandez, Klimala. Subs: Clark, Barlow, Luquinhas.
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