As gratifying as Tony Meola may have felt after the MetroStars defeated the Kansas City Wizards 1-0 on Saturday, the MetroStars goalkeeper had more on his mind.
The 36-year-old Meola has no hard feelings towards the city where he plied his trade for six years. After the game, Meola took off his goalkeeping shirt to reveal a T-shirt that said "Thank You KC." Meola walked off the field in front of the Wizards' most hard-core supporters. They seemed to have nothing bad to say, although they did give him the normal hostile treatment all visiting goalkeepers receive during the game.
"My family was there," Meola said. "So I knew it would be positive. It could only be positive. These days, my family doesn't get so see a lot of games live. That part of it was a special treat."
Meola went through many highs and lows during his six seasons with the Wizards before the club declined to offer him a contract after the 2004 season, during which he suffered a partially torn right Achilles tendon. Backup Bo Oshoniyi performed well in Meola's absence as the Wizards made it to the MLS Cup final. The Wizards declined to sign Meola, leaving him free to sign with another MLS club.
"I had a good time while I was here," Meola said. "I love it here and my family is here. I certainly have no hard feelings about anybody in Kansas City. The city is great and it's fun to come back."
After rehabilitating the injury, Meola signed with the MetroStars in July and has played every minute in the last nine MetroStars games. But Meola's family still lives in the Kansas City area.
Meola's 56th career MLS clean sheet, most in league history, must have been a special treat as well. It is not often that a team is able to maintain a 1-0 lead after one of its players is sent off in the 65th minute as the MetroStars did.
MetroStars defender Tim Regan was sent off by referee Terry Vaughn in the 65th minute for his second yellow card, a tackle from behind on Wizards midfielder Davy Arnaud.
But by that time the MetroStars already had the lead. Eddie Gaven scored in the 44th minute after his hard, right-footed shot from about 35 yards went into the goal. Wizards midfielder Sasha Victorine deflected the ball into the net but was still credited to Gaven for his sixth goal of the season.
Tim Ward played the ball back to Gaven, who was all alone for the shot as most of the players from both teams were in the penalty area for Amado Guevara's free kick.
The Wizards were able to dictate the pace of the game for the final 25 minutes, after Regan was sent off. But the MetroStars dodged all bullets fired and misfired at their goal.
"You need to stay disciplined," MetroStars coach Bob Bradley said. "You can't panic and you still need to keep the ball a little bit. I think we did a good job with those things."
The MetroStars had a defined strategy for defending the lead in the final 25 minutes one man down.
"The strategy is to frustrate the other team by trying to make them play in front of you, by not giving them holes and by being as compact as possible," defender Jeff Agoos said. "You have to move the ball even quicker than when you have 11 men because they are going to try and pressure you. There are opportunities to get at them but they did a good job of closing us down. But I think we did an equally good job of holding on to the ball when we did have possession."
The biggest defensive stop for the MetroStars may have been in the 26th minute. Josh Wolff played a ball through to Scott Sealy, who had maneuvered between MetroStars defenders Agoos and Carlos Mendes. Sealy dribbled around Meola, but Agoos saved Sealy shot off the line.
"Tony did a great pushing him wide and forcing an early shot and I happened to be back covering for him," Agoos said. "You cover for each other whether you are on the back line or the middle of the field."
The MetroStars are still five points behind third-place Kansas City and fourth-place Chicago for the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.
"We're at a point where we need three point games, not draws," Bradley said. "Last week (a draw against Kansas City) was nice to come from behind and get that one point but we clearly have emphasized that we've got to be shooting for three every time out. There are 18 points on the table. It's hard to know for sure how many it's going to take but we certainly realize that we're going for three points every time out."
Robert Whitman is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
