There are many reasons why 2000 was special, but top of the list is the arrival of Clint Mathis. The Georgian gunslinger came to a struggling Metro side early in the season, and proceeded to turn the club on its head, playing with the intensity and fire not seen in Metro colors before or since, and winning the hearts of fans in the process. In the perfect world, he would have been rewarded with a championship; but this is Metro, as far from perfect as we can get. At the very least, those of us who were there can be rewarded by the memory of the greatest year ever for anyone in Metro colors.

Coming off the disastrous 1999, Metro started slow in 2000, and was lingering at 3-6 in mid-May. Meanwhile, on the other coast, there was a brouhaha stirring up, as MLS was about to pony up millions to sign Mexican striker Luis Hernandez and assign him to LA. One problem, though: the Galaxy had no allocations to acquire "El Matador", so MLS tried to force LA to trade for one. Mathis, in his third year with the club, was deemed expendable, and San Jose was picked as a trading partner. However, the Galaxy did not want to help their rival, and a stalemate was reached. So MLS intervened.

The Galaxy would no longer have to trade Mathis. MLS would institute a dispersal draft, forcing LA to get rid of Clint and Joey Franchino. Metro, with the worst overall record over the last 32 games, picked first, and grabbed Mathis. Little did we know what was coming next.

It's not that Clint was an average player with the Galaxy; he scored his share of goals, and was already capped for the US. It's that Mathis was always a supporting player in LA's array of stars. Now jettisoned for a Mexican, he came to New York with a chip on his shoulder. And with the supposed stars in Metro-land, Lothar Matthaus and Adolfo Valencia, up to slow starts, Mathis took it upon his shoulders to carry this team. And did he ever succeed.

His debut was a memorable two-goal comeback against Tampa Bay, when Clint assisted on Petter Villegas' brilliant blast in overtime. A week later, he scored his first for Metro in an easy 4:1 win over Chicago. A week after that, he came back to his old stomping grounds in LA, scored the game-winner, and flashed the "I LOVE NY" shirt, hidden under his jersey, to his former home fans. The Galaxy was not amused. Metro started rolling.

In Mathis' first 15 games with the club, Metro went 12-1-2 in all competitions. The top spot in the league was within reach. Clint was scoring in every imaginable way, unstoppable; fearless if not reckless. The fans started to come out in droves. The debacle of 1999 was forgotten; it was a winning team, an exciting team. And there was one man in the forefront of that. Clint Mathis.

When the dust settled, Metro won the East for the first time, and Clint scored 13 goals with 13 assists for the club. Five of those goals, an MLS record that still stands, came on August 26th, in a playoff-clinching 6:4 win in Dallas. The postseason came, and he promptly dispatched the same Burn team, with three of Metros' four goals in the two-game sweep. Sadly, in the semifinals, the Fire found a way to put a clamp on Mathis. Three scoreless games for our star, and that was that.

For as Mathis went, the team went. In 2000, and amazingly still, Metro has never lost a match in which Clint scored, a streak that became more and more impressive as he stretched his goal total to the team record of 45. Metro's ability to play well when Clint is on his game was as evident then as it is now.

Sadly, the rest of Clint's Metro career could not live to the lofty standard he set, but we will place the blame on that ACL tear in 2001 and not on Mathis himself. Clint is back now, but even he would admit that he is no longer the same player. But sometimes, there are moments when the spark is back, when Clint's eyes light up and we are treated to a moment of brilliance. On those moments, the gunslinger of 2000 is back.