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[Frank Cunha]

I'm surprised, can this guys be for real?
Columbus-1-Metrostars-3
my question will be answer next week

[pirate]

Great win For the Metrostars. :thumbsup:

[Frank Cunha]

they were all over the Columbus Crew, hard to believe, I hope was not the wind effect

[Frank Cunha]

hope for a big crowd with DC United Adu

[Frank Cunha]

http://www.nj.com/sportsflash/metros...orts&njometros

[Frank Cunha]

There's no avoiding the hype. Freddy Adu is coming to town Saturday, and as he makes his way through all the Major League Soccer stops this season, the media and fan focus will tend to be more on him than on the game.

That might be great for the league, at least for this year, but all the fanfare doesn't really concern MetroStars coach Bob Bradley. While he's all for everything Adu brings to the league, his focus this weekend is on his own team, and passing Adu's D.C. United in the Eastern Conference standings.



"The only thing that we've said is that there's always distractions leading into the home opener and to make sure we continue doing the good things we've done thus far," Bradley said yesterday. "Our concentration is on our team and playing better every day."

But the hype will be there nonetheless. D.C. United sold out its season opener at RFK Stadium (24,603) April 3, and the Galaxy had a sellout of 27,000 in The Home Depot Center for Saturday night's 1-1 tie in Adu's first road game.

The MetroStars have already sold 22,000 seats for Saturday and expect to reach 30,000 by the weekend. They drew 23,786 for last season's home opener against the Crew.

"He's talented," Bradley said of the 14-year-old Adu. "He's capable of making special plays in every game, but like any young player there's a learning curve, but he's an exciting, talented player."

A considerably nervous Adu had a shaky 29-minute debut, but played well against the Galaxy when he came on to start the second half.

"Last weekend, I had a lot of pressure on me and you guys saw I didn't play that well," Adu said after the Galaxy match. "I said after (the opener) that I was glad to get that over with and now I can just think about playing soccer. And that's what I did out there tonight. I felt like the old me and hopefully I can keep that going."

Galaxy coach Sigi Schmid was impressed with Adu.

"I thought Freddy did well," Schmid said. "You know, it's Hollywood, and he's going to do well here. I was just hoping that he wasn't going to get a goal against us. That would have probably been the fitting finish for it.

"With each week he's going to get better, he's going to get more confident and he's going to make better decisions as to when to take guys on and on what parts of the field. He's a skillful, quick, fast player who knows how to play the game."

That part of the Adu phenomenon -- his game -- does matter to Bradley. But the MetroStars need to build off their season-opening, 3-1 victory Aug. 3 on the road against the Crew, and Saturday is the first step.

"The feeling is that there's a lot of improvement since last year," said Bradley, who is looking to create more of a home-field advantage at Giants Stadium where the MetroStars were just 5-6-4 last year. "There's a good base and if we take care of ourselves, we'll be a good team.

"We built a foundation last year ... but we never had a big margin in how to win games. We had to make the most of everything. There are signs this year that ... if we continue, it will pay off in many ways, including being a better team at home."

[Frank Cunha]

: Waiting for Adu the right play for Pope
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
BY COLIN STEPHENSON
Star-Ledger Staff
The quirky scheduling that gave the MetroStars two weeks between their season-opening 3-1 victory over the Columbus Crew and their home opener Saturday against 14-year-old sensation Freddy Adu and D.C. United was tailor-made for captain Eddie Pope.

"Oh, yeah, that was a blessing," Pope said yesterday in the Giants Stadium press lounge during the MetroStars' media day. "Not having a game last weekend gave me time to play a couple practice games and get in better shape."


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Pope, generally regarded as the best defender in America, doesn't really need to get into shape, but he has had a tough start to the year. In January, before a friendly match between the U.S. national team and Denmark, he fainted in his hotel room.

Pope, 30, said a battery of tests hasn't found the reason for his collapse, but the way he sees it, that's actually good news.

"I just think it was one of those things," he said. "Luckily they didn't find anything. So long as it doesn't happen again, it's good. I just happened to pass out. From what I was told, it happens all the time, to males. Especially in the bathroom, for some reason."

After he was cleared medically and returned to the field, Pope suffered a more conventional injury when he pulled a quadriceps muscle in a U.S. match against Haiti after colliding with the Haitian goalkeeper. That injury caused him to miss the MetroStars' season opener, but he is ready to go now.

"He's trained well this week, and he's moving around much better," coach Bob Bradley said. "So it's a nice thing to see him back out there."

No kidding. In his first season with the MetroStars last year, Pope was limited, by injury and national-team duty, to 26 games between the MLS regular-season, U.S. Open Cup and league playoff games. During those games, the MetroStars surrendered 27 goals. In the 11 games he didn't play, they gave up a 24.

The MetroStars (1-0) will need him against the hot United striker duo of Jaime Moreno and Bergen Catholic graduate Alecko Eskandarian plus, of course, Adu, who has come off the bench in D.C.'s first two games. Adu seemed more impressive and comfortable in his second appearance last Saturday in Los Angeles against the Galaxy.

As they resume their season and their quest to win the franchise's first title, the MetroStars will benefit from having Pope healthy and finally having a full roster available for the game.

Forwards Cornell Glen, of Trinidad, and Sergio Galvan Rey, of Argentina (via Colombia), received their work visas and are expected to join the team in the next couple of days. Glen could arrive tonight and Rey could arrive tomorrow night.

That wouldn't leave much practice time for either to prove he deserves to play on Saturday, but Bradley wouldn't rule it out.

Rey, who scored 170 goals in seven seasons in the Colombian league, and Glen, who is on the Trinidad and Tobago national team, join a quintet of forwards that will seek to produce what the group led by Moreno and Clint Mathis couldn't last year -- consistent goal scoring.




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[Frank Cunha]

3-2
the player of the match the Youngester from Jamaica, Fabian Taylor 2 goals
nice crowd over 31,000

[Adalon]

Did adu play?? how did he do?

[Ricochet]

Adu played the last 40 minutes or so, got himself a goal.

[revolutionfan]

Originally posted by Frank Cunha

the player of the match the Youngester from Jamaica, Fabian Taylor 2 goals

Very impressive and should be player of the week.

[BethlehemFC]

Yeah -- he looked good.

[Frank Cunha]

http://www.nj.com/metrostars/ledger/...4266172980.xml

[Frank Cunha]

it looks like we finally hit the jackpot

[Frank Cunha]

Taylor Named Player of Week 19/04/04

The 23-year-old St. Catherine, Jamaica native also earned Man of the Match honors after notching two goals in Saturday’s 3-2 Metros win over D.C. United at Giants Stadium.

Taylor, who replaced Mike Magee in the game at the half, scored his first goal of the season and first as a Metro just five minutes after entering the contest. Metros midfielder Mark Lisi played a cross into the box, and Taylor headed the ball with force toward the lower right corner. United goalkeeper Doug Warren made a spectacular save on Taylor’s attempt, but the Jamaican international pounced on the rebound first and put it over Warren from a tight angle to tie the score at 1-1.

"(Taylor) made a huge difference for us today," MetroStars head coach Bob Bradley said. "The first goal really turned things around.”

The MetroStars added to their lead in the 63rd minute when the striker got his second of the game. Midfielder Eddie Gaven created space by turning D.C. United defender Bryan Namoff to the inside and slipping through a short pass into the left side of the penalty area where Taylor collected the ball and fired a shot that Warren got a hand on but could not stop as the ball trickled into the goal to make the score 3-1.

"We just weren't going to accept a loss today," Taylor said. "We stepped it up a notch and our midfield played well for us."

Taylor became the first Metro to score a goal in his Giants Stadium debut since John Wolyniec on August 18, 1999 in a 4-2 MetroStars loss to the Columbus Crew. Taylor also becomes the first MetroStars player since goalkeeper Jonny Walker to earn Player of the Week honors (Week 19 – 2003) and the first Metros forward since Mamadou Diallo in 2002.

Formerly a top scorer in Jamaica with Harbour View, Taylor has appeared in each of the team’s first two games in 2004 after being signed by the team on March 3.

The Major League Soccer Player of the Week is selected every week throughout the MLS regular season by a panel of journalists from the Professional Soccer Reporters Association (PSRA). Dallas Burn forward Eddie Johnson and San Jose Earthquakes forward Dwayne DeRosario finished behind Taylor as the runners-up for this week’s award.

2004 PLAYER OF THE WEEK WINNERS:

Week 1: Jaime Moreno (D.C. United)
Week 2: Pat Onstad (San Jose Earthquakes)
Week 3: Fabian Taylor (MetroStars)