NY RED BULLS LATEST NEWS

[Frank Cunha]

Revolution scored early in the game
39m
New England-1-Metrostars-0

[Frank Cunha]

final score
New England-1-Metrostars -1

[Frank Cunha]

game to be played in Elizabeth on Wednesday night

[Frank Cunha]

nice article about the game

http://www.nj.com/metrostars/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1085466618193220.xml

[Frank Cunha]

more on the game

http://www.metrostars.com/metronews/submissions/2004/may/05252004v2.shtml

[BethlehemFC]

I've been to the Portugal Day Festival in Newark several times. Nice event.

[Frank Cunha]

Metrostars -3-Boavista-1

[Ricochet]

Other than Gaven I believe it was all the backups that got playing time.

[Frank Cunha]

the same for Boavista, they rebuilding the team
also they never played on the astroturf, at least they avoid been red card

[Frank Cunha]

snap skid, 1-0
Monday, May 31, 2004
BY COLIN STEPHENSON
Star-Ledger Staff
After five consecutive winless games, including three straight ties, the MetroStars wanted a victory last night. Victories by Chicago, Columbus and D.C. United on Saturday had dropped the Metros from a share of first place into fourth in Major League Soccer's Eastern Conference. And if they were to regain a share of the top spot, the MetroStars had to find a way to earn the full three points against the Kansas City Wizards at Giants Stadium.

"Everybody won, so we didn't have a choice," captain Eddie Pope said.




Fortunately for them, John Wolyniec, starting his first game since April 17, provided the goal that gave them that victory, heading home the rebound of an Eddie Gaven header for a 1-0 decision over the Wizards that ended the winless streak and put them back into a tie with Chicago for the conference lead.

For the MetroStars, and goalkeeper Jonny Walker, it was the first shutout of the season. For Wolyniec, the goal was his third of the season. The 27-year-old Staten Islander has scored in every game he has started, and the MetroStars (3-1-4) also have won every game Wolyniec has started.

"I think John has played well," Metros coach Bob Bradley said of Wolyniec. "Against (Portuguese club) Boavista the other night (a 3-1 exhibition victory Wednesday) he had a good game. We build on that. He's helped us, no doubt about it."

Bradley spent the entire off-season and preseason working to build up the depth at the forward position, and with that improved depth, Bradley has not settled on one set pair to start every game. Wolyniec and Mike Magee started the first two games, then internationals Fabian Taylor (Jamaica), Sergio Galvan Rey (Colombia) and Cornell Glen (Trinidad) have taken turns up front the past five weeks.

But with Taylor coming off a subpar game last weekend and Glen away with the Trinidad and Tobago national team, Bradley started Wolyniec and Galvan Rey, who scored all three of the goals Wednesday against Boavista.

Galvan Rey had a frustrating day. In the 50th minute, he passed up a chance for a shot from six yards out off a left-wing cross from Chris Leitch to flick the ball on for Wolyniec, who was too far away to get to the ball. Then, in the 52nd minute, he missed, wide right, with a left-footed try from the upper left part of the box.

Bradley finally replaced him, turning to Taylor in the 69th minute, and the MetroStars scored three minutes later.

The play started with a free kick about 40 yards from goal that Guevara chipped into the left side of the penalty box, and Gaven, with his back to the goal, flicked it backward with his head, toward the goal. Kansas City goalkeeper Tony Meola, retreating back to his goal line, couldn't get to it, and the ball bounced off the crossbar, right to Wolyniec, who couldn't miss the wide-open net from three yards away.

"Eddie did a good job staying on top of it, and I thought it was going to go in," Wolyniec said of his goal. "I just followed the ball and it hit the crossbar and came down right in front of me. I saw my spot and hit it to the far post."

Whether that one goal will convince Bradley that Wolyniec deserves to be a full-time starter, though, remains to be seen. Taylor (four goals) and Glen (three) have had success, too. And even Magee has one goal in less than two games' worth of playing time (131 minutes). Among the forwards, only Galvan Rey has yet to score.

Asked whether he feels he has made a statement to claim a starting spot, Wolyniec refused to be drawn into creating controversy.

"It's definitely going to be a game-to-game thing," he said of his chances of starting. "Unless somebody's scoring two goals a game, I don't think they're going to solidify a spot."


Notes:

Besides Glen, the Metros were without defender Tenywa Bonseu, who left last night to join the Uganda national team for World Cup qualifying. ... Kansas City defender Jimmy Conrad suffered a cut under his right eye when he got caught by a stray elbow from Gaven in the 44th minute. He left the game for the rest of the half, but returned in the second half. Conrad was the same player who in the Metros-Wizards game at Giants Stadium last August collapsed due to severe afternoon heat. ... Attendance last night was announced at 9,109.

[Frank Cunha]

Metrostars loses at home against Dallas at home, it sucks

[Ricochet]

Galvan Rey is awful. get him out of the league.

[Frank Cunha]

suppose to be a big time striker, bring back Mama Diallo

[Frank Cunha]

MetroStars barely put up a fight
Sunday, June 06, 2004
BY PETE IORIZZO
Star-Ledger Staff
The MetroStars could handle ugly. Mistakes they would have tolerated. But last night's performance was, in the eyes of players and their head coach, downright unacceptable.

"There are ways to lose," MetroStars goalkeeper Jonny Walker said. "This isn't one of them. You can go down swinging or fighting. There was a little of that tonight, but we just lost our heads."

They also lost the game, 2-0, to the Dallas Burn in front of 11,519 at Giants Stadium. In losing, the MetroStars wasted a chance to move into sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference and an opportunity to pick up a victory against a mediocre team before national team obligations thin the roster.

A floundering offense shouldered much of the blame. After scoring 12 goals in their first five games, the MetroStars (3-2-4) have managed just three in their last four. Last night, they failed to convert any of nine corner kicks, including six in the first half. In the second half, they shot wide or misplayed their few chances.

"With 15 minutes left we completely lost the shape of the team," Walker said. "We completely lost our heads and gave them way too many chances. The chances we created were minimal."

Perhaps Walker was upset about being rendered helpless on the two Burn goals. On the first, in the 51st minute, Dallas' Ronnie O'Brien carried up the right side and centered to Eddie Johnson, who slipped a bouncer wide of a diving Walker. On the second, with the MetroStars pressing for the tying goal in the 90th minute, Toni Nhelko scored on a breakaway, his second chance in four minutes.

All game, Dallas (3-4-2) stayed back and waited for the MetroStars to make mistakes. Growing frustrated, the MetroStars obliged by routinely turning the ball over and flubbing passes.

"That wasn't good enough in any area," MetroStars coach Bob Bradley said. "We weren't good enough with the ball, and we didn't create enough opportunities against a team that stayed set and organized. We didn't want to work hard enough to get back the balls we lost ourselves. We let ourselves down in all areas."

Bradley normally stresses a quick tempo to keep the other team moving. That prevents his team from facing organized defenses and slows counterattacks. Last night, though, the MetroStars slogged through a dreadful first half and then were quicker but more disorganized in the second.

"In the first half we were very slow with the ball," Bradley said. "Our movement was very poor. I felt like we were playing against their set defense the entire game."

Said midfielder Mark Lisi: "We're not moving the ball well. They made it difficult for us. We need to make better passes and have more creativity."

This loss comes at a bad time for the MetroStars, because this week Walker and captain Eddie Pope head to the U.S. national team. They join a laundry list of MetroStars players -- Cornell Glen, Fabian Taylor, Craig Ziadie, Amado Guevara, Tenywa Bonseu and possibly Joselito Vaca -- who will miss or have missed time this year because of national team commitments.


Fire 2, D.C. United 0:

In Chicago, Damani Ralph scored three goals to spark the Fire. His first score came in the 15th minute, and he added goals in the 55th and 69th minutes.

Fire goalkeeper Henry Ring earned his league-leading sixth shutout.

Teenage phenom Freddy Adu's first appearance in Chicago drew a crowd of 25,810 to Soldier Field.

"It's always that way, whenever we play anywhere," Adu said. "That's just how it is. It's part of the game, and you just have to deal with it."



The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Frank Cunha]

MetroStars: Short of men but not goals
Saturday, June 19, 2004
BY COLIN STEPHENSON
Star-Ledger Staff
Missing a quarter of their roster away for World Cup qualifying and confronting back-to-back significant challenges, the MetroStars faced a crucial test of their depth over the past eight days.

They proved just deep enough.




Mike Magee headed home a pass from midfielder Gilberto Flores in the 89th minute yesterday to give the Metros a well-deserved 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy -- the team with the league's best record -- before 14,371 at Giants Stadium. The victory means the Metros split their two key games, after having lost last weekend to the defending MLS champion San Jose Earthquakes.

And by the time the MetroStars play their next game -- a return match against the Galaxy on Wednesday in Carson, Calif. -- the five players who missed yesterday's game on national team duty will be back.

"It's a very good win," a reserved Metros coach Bob Bradley said. "It was a good effort from a bunch of guys that don't always get on the field."

For Magee, the goal -- plus an assist on the Metros' other goal, by Kenny Arena -- might help him stay on the field when strikers Fabian Taylor and Cornell Glen return to the team after playing for Jamaica and Trinidad, respectively. But the 19-year-old said he wasn't looking at this game as an especially important opportunity for him.

"Anytime you're playing, it's an important game," Magee said. "I want to show I can play. Bob knows that, just as he knows Fabian can play, and Cornell and Johnny Wolyniec can play. Anytime you get on the field, you've got to make your best effort."

Without the five World Cup players, and with starters Eddie Pope, Mark Lisi and Joselito Vaca out with injuries, the MetroStars (4-3-4, 16 points) had just 15 players in uniform -- and two of those, striker Sergio Galvan Rey and defender Tenywa Bonseu -- were also injured and weren't really capable of playing. The starting 11 averaged 22 years, 138 days in age -- making it the youngest lineup in league history. Striker John Wolyniec, at 27, was the only player on the field older than 25.

But the Metros controlled the play for most of the game against the Galaxy (who were minus strikers Carlos Ruiz and Jovan Kirovski to qualifying duty) and took the lead on the first MLS goal by Arena -- the second-year defender who is the son of U.S. national team coach Bruce Arena.

Arena, who started his second straight game in central defense in Pope's place, scored when Magee's corner from the left-wing corner flag bounced off him -- somewhere -- and deflected into the goal in the 42nd minute.

"I knew it hit me, and I saw it flying in the back of the goal," said Arena, who wasn't sure exactly what part of his body the ball hit. "I'll take that any day."

For Arena, who said he found out about 15 minutes before the game that he would start, the goal was a nice reward for pushing through adversity, having struggled last year with injuries.

"He's worked very hard in the back at positioning and reading plays, so he's not diving and fouling all the time, which is what got him into trouble last year," Bradley said.

The lead was short-lived. Referee Ricardo Salazar awarded the Galaxy (6-4-3, 21 points)