It was a homecoming Zach Wells would rather forget. Last week Wells struggled in his return to Los Angeles as the MetroStars left The Home Depot Center with a draw, feeling they deserved a victory.
Wells took that game with him to training during the week, used it as motivation against D.C. United on Sunday and turned in his best performance of his young MLS career. Wells made a career-high 14 saves, one shy of the MLS record, and nearly single-handedly earned the MetroStars a point in a scoreless draw against D.C. United at Giants Stadium.
Tony Meola has the MLS mark for saves in a game with 15 -- also set in a MetroStars-D.C. United match, a 2-1 United victory on April 5, 1997.
"I felt like last week we deserved to win and I let the team down and turned two quarter-chances or what looked like nothing into goals," said Wells, who played for UCLA and is from Costa Mesa, Calif. "I wanted to come out and prove myself again this week."
Not every save was earth shattering, but several -- especially against goalless Alecko Eskandarian in the second half -- were world class.
His best stop was in the 75th minute when he lunged to his right to rob Eskandarian. Earlier, in the 54th minute, Wells pushed Eskandarian's rebounded free kick over the crossbar and seven minutes later stopped Eskandarian's diving header. United outshot the MetroStars 28-8 for the game.
"I played against Alecko a couple of times in college and went to a couple of youth national team camps with him so I know he's a dangerous player and has a very potent left foot, has a quick shot," Wells said. "With him it was just a matter of getting set quickly and that kind of takes away the surprise factor."
Wells picked up his teammates several times in the first half as well, coming up two saves shy of a career-high in the opening 45 minutes alone. In the 25th minute Wells dived to his left to stop Dema Kovalenko's first-time volley from the right side of the goal area.
"I thought Zach was sharp, made some saves, kept us in it," Metros coach Bob Bradley said. "(It's) important because I know he felt he almost had too much adrenaline to go back and play in L.A. and didn't have a good game last week and was feeling he hadn't handled the situation well. I felt it was good to see him bounce back with a really good effort today."
Added newly acquired Ante Razov: "He kept the team in the game, that's for sure. That's his job and there's going to be games when the team isn't firing on all cylinders and that's his job, to keep us in the game and make saves when maybe he shouldn't make."
Wells, who was a backup to Jonny Walker a year ago, was the starter at the beginning of the season as Walker recovered from offseason rotator cuff surgery. Walker then strained his left calf, which kept him out of action for a few more weeks.
Wells has done more than an adequate job in Walker's absence and is currently third in the league behind New England's Matt Reis and Scott Garlick of FC Dallas with a 1.00 goals against average and four shutouts in 12 games.
Walker is once again healthy but Wells has proven that he deserves to be the No. 1 keeper -- at least for now.
"A lot of credit goes to him, he came up big when we needed him," Metros defender Carlos Mendes said of Wells. "He was solid back there for us, great game."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
