In the 22nd minute of Sunday's match between the MetroStars and Columbus Crew at Giants Stadium, referee Jair Marrufo blew his whistle and ordered all the players to head for the locker rooms, while the fans looked for protection as well.
With the heavy rain coming down, the flashes of lightning every few seconds and the bangs of thunder growing louder and louder, not to mention the winds reaching above 70 mph, there was no regret from anyone that play should have been halted with the Metros trailing 1-0.
Unfortunately for the fans, it was a different story for all of them.
"I waited a minute after the rain had started. It didn't feel like it would get much worse," said Metros fan Jennifer Maestri.
While the fans kept busy outside, the players did their own part to stay warm, if they were to go back out. Midfielder Michael Bradley was unaware, yet relieved that Marrufo blew the whistle.
"I didn't even know what was happening. Everyone else was going off the field, so off I went," said Bradley. "Obviously, down 1-0, it was pretty frustrating. We started out on the stationary bikes to keep our legs moving, a massage to get the blood flowing and then talked about what we needed to do once we got back on the field."
Forward Youri Djorkaeff put it simply, "It was strange."
For a couple of out-of-state fans, like Nancy and Mark S., they thought the break lasted forever. "We sat up and waited it out," said Nancy. "He [Mark] came up from Maryland for this game and I just hope I can get him back in time."
Officially, the rain delay lasted 92 minutes. Nancy and Mark stayed through the entire delay and erupted, along with the thousands of other fans who waited, when Mike Magee served the ball to Sergio Galvan Rey to score his sixth goal of the season and, more importantly, tie the game.
Around the time of Galvan Rey's goal, it was announced that any fan with a ticket stub from the match would be able to exchange that stub for one ticket to a future MetroStars 2005 regular season home game.
Fan Kevin Creeder was pleased to hear about the deal. "All of the fans here certainly deserve it," said Kevin, who was with his three kids, Ryan, Kaleigh and Morgan, along with the rest of the Washingtonville Soccer Club. "And for the MetroStars, it's a win-win situation. They get their fans to come back and we get to see a free game."
Another family who thought the ticket deal was great had an extra job to do during the rain delay. Kim and Helmut H. both had to keep young McKenzie, who was not more than two years old, busy.
"Once we saw the lightning, even before it started raining, we came up [into the concourse]," said Kim. "It felt like two hours and we had to do something to keep McKenzie happy, so we decided to take her to one of the spirals and watched the rain fall down. That kept her occupied."
Despite being wet, Metros fans went home happy after Djorkaeff completed the comeback with a goal in the 66th minute, leading to a 2-1 win.
Things could not have worked about better for the MetroStars: a victory for three points in the standings, more fans to come back for a future home game and some motivation going into this Sunday's match with Chivas USA.
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A new addition to the website will be a team trivia contest. Each week, fans will have their chance to answer a question about the MetroStars. The first three correct answers will be rewarded with their name, age and town in the following week's column, as well as a brief (3-5 lines) description why they love the MetroStars. Here is this week's question:
Tony Meola registered his 91st career MLS win on Sunday and is in fourth place in the all-time wins list. Who must he catch in order to move up into third place?
Submit your answers to Steven.Brooks@temple.edu. Go MetroStars!
