Metro uses VAR to eke by 10-man Revs, 2:1
July 8, 2023
Oh, the VAR gods have sure done a number on Metro through the years. This year, even; what is considered a penalty one week is not a penalty the next, always somehow not in Metro's favor. Well, at some point we were going to get a call, and that was a case tonight, as a last-minute New England equalizer was wiped off the board. After displaying some earlier late heroics of their own, Metro ran off 2:1 winners.
Metro had the run of play for the entirety of the first half, and were unlucky not to score off an Andres Reyes header from a corner kick. The Revs had one quality chance on the other end, but Carlos Coronel did well to cut off the angle and save a shot on a breakaway.
Metro's goal finally came in the 58th minute, as Luquinhas found Dante Vanzeir on the left side. The Belgian sent a looping ball into the box that was met by the head of Frankie Amaya. The diminutive midfielder got between two Rev defenders and redirected it in. Somehow, he has now scored three straight goals at Red Bull Arena -- and is the team's leading league scorer with those three.
Two minutes after this goal, Latif Blessing took down Amaya in the midfield, with referee Rubiel Vazquez going directly to the red. So, up a goal, up a man, this was going to be easy, right? Wrong.
Metro was once again unlucky to not score off the corner, but it was the Revs who utilized that type of set piece to their liking. In the 76th, a header got past Coronel, and the game was tied.
Metro came out with a new purpose, and regained the lead in the 85th, when sub Wiki Carmona took a long shot from outside the box that deflected off a defender and somehow hit the underside of the crossbar and went in. So, up a goal, up a man, five minutes left, this was going to me easy, right? Wrong.
Off a Rev corner kick two minutes into injury time, the ball got back to Andrew Farrell, who drilled a long long shot off the far post and into the net. Thankfully, Coronel was late to the shot because he was screened by a player in an offside position. In of the shortest VAR reviews in recent history, the goal was waived off and Metro held on.
Thanks, VAR gods! But it should have been easier...
Lineup: Coronel, Duncan, Nealis, Reyes, Harper, Amaya, Edelman, Fernandez, Luquinhas, Barlow, Vanzeir. Subs: Carmona, Ndam, Stroud.
|
