Metro dominates, but fails
April 10, 2018
With a few minutes left in the match, Chivas took a shot. Not a shot on goal, just a shot. It was absolutely harmless. It was their only shot of the night.
Metro took 20. And even that discrepancy doesn't explain the complete, utter domination that they showed over their supposedly superior Mexican opponents. Metro won every 50-50 ball, didn't allow the Goats to get past midfield, caused numerous turnovers, and constantly attacked. It was as dominating performance as one could imagine.
Except on the scoreboard, where, despite all of the above, it ended 0:0 and 1:0 on aggregate. Who cares that Metro were the better team for 90 minutes? The result was failure.
And it wasn't just shots; midway through the first half, a cross from Daniel Royer crossed the goalmouth, with both Bradley Wright-Phillips and Kemar Lawrence just missing it. That play was indicative of the whole match: a perfectly-placed ball, with just that one last touch missing.
And we can applaud the team for coming into the game prepared, and pushing around a squad whose transfer value dwarfs ours. There have been elimination in years past where the effort shown was just not there; this was clearly not the case.
Not that it makes us feel any better...
Lineup: Robles, Lawrence, Parker, Long, Murillo, Adams, Davis, Valot, Etienne, Royer, Wright-Phillips. Subs: Romero Gamarra, Rivas.
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