Haven't seen any mention of it on here. This game and the next seem like a good time to rest some players. I'd play Sheppard and Klinger. Seriously, Klinger. He needs to prove his worth or be cut, and there's no better time to do it than tonight. I'd try and keep Rodrigo and Andy Williams from playing a full game, since they need to get some rest as well. We need them to be healthy when the current crop of injured guys return. I read Davis should be back in a week so if we can survive Guadalajara then our midfield should improve.
Here's the pregame talk and all of that...courtesy of metrostars.com.... http://metrostars.com/gameday/2002/index.htm Here's the official squad.... including new signing and world traveler Jeff Cassar. Name No. Pos. Ht. Wt. 2001 Club Cole Burgman 1 GK 6'2 185 Nashville Metros Bryheem Hancock 13 GK 6'3 165 College:U of Conn. Jeff Cassar 30 GK 6'2 198 Bolton Wanderers Carl Fletcher 3 D 5'9 175 Rochester Rhinos Jason Annicchero 19 D 6'3 200 Atlanta Silverbacks GilbertJean-Baptiste 5 D 6'0 180 Charleston Battery Byron Mitchell 15 D 5'11 172 Cleveland Crunch James Wall 6 D 6'2 170 Nashville Metros Alan Woods 2 D 6'0 170 New England Revolution Carlos Parra 4 M 6'1 175 Atlanta Silverbacks Ryan Leib 10 M 5'11 175 Charlotte Eagles Nate Hetherington 7 M 5'7 150 San Diego Flash Jordy Broder 9 M 5'9 165 College: Appalachian St. Philippe Godoy 18 M 5'4 150 Milwaukee Rampage Brian Piesner 20 M 5'9 160 Charleston Battery Tony Kuhn 23 F 6'2 170 Memphis Express Jon Akin 11 F 5'10 160 Charleston Battery Ignace "Iggy" Moleka 14 F 5'9 170 Jamel Mitchell F 6'1 195 Rochester Rhinos John Barry Nusum 8 F 6'1 204 Furman University Velko Iotov 21 F 5'11 175 Charleston Battery
Anybody want to take dibs on who else gets injured in this meaningless match? I got first right to Alvarez....
Where in our past have we ever proven to be that lucky? The should just call this the "audition for Alvarez' roster spot" match.
And, just for laughs, we are currently trailing in the second half after surrendering a goal to the immortal Tony Kuhn in the 44th minute. If the metros lose, I nominate this as the most embarassing week in metro history. It's not the absolute worst, but should at least get top 5. Just to recap: beaten by the Crew in someone else's park to crash out of the Open Cup (again), Metros get pantsed by a 70k turn out for a Euro friendly, then they top the week off by mailing it in against a minor league affiliate of ours. And the topper, we have the Chivas game to look forward to on Wednesday. NY/NJ Metrostars. It's your game, we're your team- paper bags available... (and yes, I realize it's unfair to blame the guys for taking a night off in a meaningless friendly so that they don't get hurt for the stretch run, but if the players we have can't beat an A league team, what good are they?).
Metros lose 1-0. And there it is, Metros lose 1-0. They are now calling it the 43' minute on the goal. Can it get any worse? I can't wait to see if there is an injury report. Watch us lose Faria. Why did we play this game again?
I can't believe it. We lost to a f*(king A-league affiliate. We suck nuts. OZ and Nick need to go. make more trades. Get rid of players. Bring in Costacurta, hell bring in Pele, he could f^cking do better than our Metros. And he's sixty! I cannot believe how terrible this team is playing right now. Bring in Mathis's boyfriend, bring in the Army college kids. Bring in the guys from Secaucus who play pick up games. Bring in the mascot, hell I'll even suit up and take the pitch and do better than the team we field now! I hope the Metro players read this and it makes them angry as all hell, they should be, they are a pathetic bunch of poor excuse players. Wake up guys.
We don't even know who was in our lineup. 2nd game in 2 days, and probably treated as a scrimmage by our banged-up team. WE should have been resting and healing instead of travelling to Atlanta. I saw this coming the other night at Mitchel; I'm neither surprised nor discouraged beyond normal, all things considered. WE aren't the only MLS team to lose to an A-League side. I think they even have bigger rosters than we do. Makes you wonder which League is the real 1st division. Considering the market we're in, Metro should be the best managed team in MLS. It has never been better than mediocre in that area.
I attended this game. Don't know why the Silverbacks wasted their time playing the Metrostars. Stars suck. Backs should have won 4-0. This game was no fluke.
And who exactly played for the Metros in this game? I know Balboa, Ramos, Davis, and Mathis didn't. It's a fair guess that Diallo and Howard didn't. Did Faria play? Petke? Jolley? Williams? Exactly how many 1st team players actually saw the pitch in this game that made it worthwhile enough to judge it "no fluke" and say that "Stars suck?" Our coaching sucks. Our talent pool is one of the best in the league. JMac
1-0? Well, look at the bright side.....at least we're not giving up 3 goals a game anymore. Martin Klinger played the whole match while Sam Forko and Byron Alvarez played most of the game. Also, Sheppard, Grafer and Marco Velez (who's he?) were starters. Taking all this into consideration, you can say that an A-League side defeated a B-League side.
Agreed. This week has to be the low point in the season. Tonight's match and the wednesday match are relatively meaningless, and a lot more bad can come from them then good. The key right now is to make it through wednesday's game healthy and to start re-building the team so that as people come off the disabled list we can steadily improve, right into and through the playoffs. I actually give OZ credit for starting Sheppard and Klinger. Hopefully he now sees that Klinger is never going to score, not in MLS and not in the A-League. But that's a side issue. Faria and Petke were used sparingly, which is good. It's a shame we had to play Williams the whole game; hopefully he won't go the full ninety on Wednesday. Despite the current lows the core of our team is still quite good. The key right now is how soon people can come off the injured list. Hopefully we'll get news on that soon. If people know anything please post it. Davis is supposed to be ready next saturday. If Diallo is too I think we can get a result against Dallas and build from there.
Here's a old bio on the 22 year old back Marco Velez that we used tonight. I think he went to the same Bradenton Academy where we send some of the u-17 national team players to school. http://www.barry.edu/Athletics/m-soccer/Players/m_velez.asp
jamison's on to something with the brown bags hey, the saints are sort of good now, maybe it pays off
I think breaking out the brown paper bags again is a bit premature. They were brought out the first time when the entire organization was crap. The GM was crap, the players were crap and the coaches were crap. Right now, I think we have the players to win the cup. When healthy (not including Balboa) we have one of the strongest teams in the league. I don't think our GM is lousy (the NE trade was a stroke of genius, but he's screwed up some too). Our only area of pitiful performance is the coach. He plays people who should never see the pitch. He won't change the formation to fit the team (which is why Petke and Jolley have had sub-par seasons). His line-ups, subs and tactics are all highly questionable. Should OZ go? Yup. Is it anywhere near as bad as the Stillitano/Bora era that first gave birth to the brown paper bag brigade? No way. JMac
This was a match that should have been played by our reserve team? If we ever actually get one beyond Metro Black -- actually, they should have played this match. OR -- if we had a 25-man roster, we could have played our entire bench. We did anyway, but with an 18-man roster, and 5 of them out injured, we had to bring in a guest in order to rest 2 (!) players, and one of them was subbed into the 2nd half anyway. As long as we have 18-man rosters, all friendlies should be politely refused during the season. And I mean all. Between injuries and travel our team is left exhausted. It's first duty is to perform for MetroStar fans -- to be in shape to play a professional game in front of people who bought tickets. I don't know who sets up these side-bar adventures, but whoever it is needs a one-way ticket to Palookaville.
Since Atlanta beat the Metro and Metro beat Bayern Munich I'd say Atlanta is the best team in the world.
Petke, Jolley and Williams all played. So did Zaide. No Big Mamma. No Faria. You consider Faria one of your good players? Ouch.
Faria was rookie of the year last seson; he does score a lot of our goals. Sorry you don't approve. Petke entered in the 59th minute; he played, but only after the the goal had been scored in the 1st. half. It was on a break-away. Could Mike have stopped it? Maybe, maybe not. Obviously the result lets Atlanta crow and strut. It's meaningless to us, except for wear and tear on the few healthy players we have. Would a win have really mattered compared with a weekends rest? Ask the players if you can't figure out this one. Again, as long as the rosters remain at 18 all friendlies should be refused during the regular season.
Actually, Faria did play. Guess he was so useless I did not even notice. The game was meaningless to the Silverbacks as well. Would much rather post a win against the Rampage or the Rhinos than in some friendly against the Metrostars. Games like this remind us all that the MLS is not very good.