MetroStars 2
Burn 1
A half-hour after the Metro Stars beat Dallas 2-1 for their fifth straight win – after Steve Jolley’s 12-yard strike that grazed Eddie Pope – nobody could say who’d actually scored the goal. Pope credited Jolley, and Jolley said Pope was welcome to the credit.
It was a telling change for this once-dysfunctional team, which has matched a team-record winning streak. Last year they had a forward concerned only with his own stats and had their since-fired coach accusing Clint Mathis of needing psychiatric help.
In just one short offseason, they’ve changed the culture of this team, now leading the MLS with 16 points. They’re sound on defense, resourceful on offense, and they fight to the end – witness Jolley’s 84th minute score – and do it as a team.
“I’ll share. I don’t care. The last thing I’m worried about is who scored, as long as somebody scored,” Jolley said. “They tell me Eddie got a piece of it, so he’s welcome to have it. I didn’t see it. I hit it and next thing I knew it was in the goal and I was jumping up and down like crazy.”
It was a goal worth celebrating.
With the score tied 1-1, rookie Mike Magee made a run down the right wing and was fouled. Mathis took the free kick, which Dallas’ Steve Morrow headed out of the box, but not out of danger.
Jolley pounced and sent a diagonal, 12-yard shot from the left of the box that slithered through the crowd and into the right corner of the net. The defender broke into a sprint and did a double back flip to celebrate what was ruled his first goal of the season.
“For us to give up a controversial penalty kick and fight back shows character. We could’ve sat on our heels and said let’s get the tie, but we wanted to win,” said Pope, who gave Jolley the credit. “You’d have to have a microscope to see it graze my foot . . . so give him the goal. He cracked a great shot.”
Mathis also scored in his fourth straight game to tie his own club record, shared by Mamadou Diallo. The Metros are 21-0-2 when he scores, and he did so last night in the 60th minute. On a indirect free kick, Mark Lisi tapped it to Amado Guevara, who fed Mathis, who blistered a shot through the nine-man wall.
Three minutes later Dallas earned a corner, and Chris Gbandi’s shot careened off Ricardo Clark, who got called for a handball. MetroStars goalie Tim Howard saved Jason Kreis’ penalty kick but Kreis slotted in the rebound to snap Howard’s 292-minute scoreless streak.
“This team finds ways to win; up, down, injured players, sent-off players,” Howard said. “We fight through things.”
