Playoff story repeats in opener, Metro loses 1:0
November 4, 2018
We've seen this story before. This year is going to be different, we were told! This year the team is special! Why, oh why do we believe it, year after year after year...
Today, we saw echoes of the Montreal loss in 2016: Metro is supposed to be the prohibitive favorite, only to go on the road, have its offense shut down, and lose 1:0 after the home team converted their one good chance of the game. Yep, we saw it all before...
That moment came in the 61st minute (even the minute matched Montreal!), when Federico Higuain backheeled to on onrushing Gyasi Zardes for would be the only goal of the game. Metro, who was shut out just four times the entire regular season, laid the proverbial goose egg. Columbus stuffed the middle and dared Metro to go outside, where they could do little with the ball.
Metro had two quality chances the entire game. First was a Tim Parker header that glanced off the post in the first half. The other came deep into injury time when Bradley Wright-Phillips just got his head on a ball to have it saved from the bottom corner by Zack Steffen. (Again, shades of the Montreal game, when BWP missed the net in injury time...)
Still, a 1:0 deficit heading to the supposed fortress of Red Bull Arena is not exactly insurmountable. Let's just try to forget how that Montreal series ended...
Can we write a new story for a change?
Lineup: Robles, Lawrence, Long, Parker, Murillo, Adams, Davis, Muyl, Royer, Romero Gamarra, Wright-Phillips. Subs: Etienne, Ivan.
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