It's not too often you see a 5-5 game in professional soccer, but I guess it happens occasionally. What a crazy game, though. First we're up, then we're down, then we end with a tie. I think part of the reason so many goals were scored from long range is the size of the field at Spartan Stadium. You're basically in shooting range anytime you pass the halfway line!
As usual, I talked to my dad after the game Saturday night and he said it was a great game to watch on TV. He said it was one of the craziest games he's ever seen, and he's seen lots of games because he's a coach for Hibernian FC, which is the club I played for before coming to the MetroStars.
It's always good to take a point home from a road game. On one hand, we're glad to get a point after giving up five goals, but on the other hand, it's a little bit disappointing not to win when you score five awesome goals like we did on Saturday. I think we showed great character, though, especially coming from two goals down at the end of the game.
Cornell Glen was awesome. It was his first start and he obviously played really well. He's so fast and a great shooter, I'm sure his confidence got a boost after the game he had against San Jose.
Looking ahead to this weekend, we're facing Chicago again, but this time at home. We want to get a little revenge from that 3-0 loss they handed us two weeks ago, and I think the main thing we need to do to have more success is to play better team defense. We've given up eight goals in our last two games, so we clearly need to tighten things up a little bit. Offensively, we're not going to change too much. Hopefully if we finish our chances we can get three points.
The editors of this column asked if I had any funny stories from the road to relay on to the fans, and this week, I definitely do. I pulled one of the oldest tricks in the book on Mark Lisi when we were out to dinner in Chicago. I unscrewed the cap to the Parmesan cheese and he got a little more than he was bargaining for right on top of his bruschetta. It was funny, but he ended up getting the last laugh.
He got me back pretty good this past week before we left for San Jose. He put Icy Hot in my boxers before we got on the bus and it was brutal! I totally wasn't expecting it and had to change pretty quickly. I don't think I'm going to go back after him, though. He wins. No sense adding fuel to the fire, if you know what I mean ...
Hope to see you all at the game Saturday.
God bless,
Eddie Gaven
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