METROSTARS 1 NEW ENGLAND 2 (SO)
Despite some strong goaltending from Tim Howard the New England Revolution beat the MetroStars in a shootout.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (Wednesday, August 25, 1999) - The MetroStars scored the opening goal, a beautiful strike by Mike Duhaney, but couldn't hold the lead and fell in a shootout to the New England Revolution, 2-1, before 9,143 at Giants Stadium on Wednesday. The loss was the club's tenth in a row, setting a new league single season mark for consecutive losses.

Duhaney's goal, in the 14th minute, came as the result of some nifty set-up work by Sasa Curcic and Henry Zambrano. Curcic did well to poke the ball through traffic to Zambrano, who worked toward the left post before sliding the ball to his right, where Duhaney met it with a powerful shot that blistered its way into the upper half of the net.

For Duhaney, who scored his last MLS goal more than a year ago, the celebration was short lived. He suffered what was believed to be an injury to the lateral meniscus of left knee when his cleats caught in the turf as he made contact with a Revolution player in the 17th minute.

New England leveled the score in the first minute of the second half on a Joe-Max Moore goal, his 12th of the season, after John Harkes played a ball from midfield through to Ted Chronopoulos. Chronopoulos worked his way through Ramiro Corrales and Mark Chung on the right flank before cutting left towards goal and splitting a pair of defenders with a pass to Moore, who buried his shot into the right half of the goal.

Both teams squandered golden scoring opportunities in the second half, on similarly bizarre goalmouth scrambles. The MetroStars saw their best scoring chance wasted in the 57th minute on a play where Nansha Kalonji's shot hit the left post and fell to Billy Walsh in the six-yard box. Walsh slammed his shot on goal, but directly at New England goalkeeper Jeff Causey, who parried the ball away before Eduardo Hurtado was whistled for standing in an offsides position.

New England appeared to win the game on a goal by Giovanni Savarese with under two minutes remaining, but again the play was called back by the referee's assistant, who called Moore offsides.

Jeff Baicher, Harkes and Savarese converted their tie-breaker attempts for New England, with Mike Sorber placing a slow roller inside the left post for the only Metro shootout goal.

Goalkeeper Tim Howard did well to keep the game tied, making a career-high seven saves on the night. The 20-year-old New Brunswick, New Jersey, native made three stops in the last five minutes, withstanding a furious late onslaught by the Revolution.

Starting Lineups:
MetroStars (1-4-4-2)
Tim Howard; Nansha Kalonji, Mark Semioli, Billy Walsh, Ramiro Corrales; Mike Sorber, Mike Duhaney (Mark Chung, 17), Brian Kelly (Petter Villegas, 85), Sasa Curcic; Eduardo Hurtado, Henry Zambrano.
MetroStars Statistics: Shots: 14 (Kelly, Zambrano, 3); Shots on Goal: 10 (Zambrano, 3); Saves 7 (Tim Howard); Fouls Committed: 21; Offsides: 7; Corner Kicks: 1; Cautions: 1 (Kalonji, 65); Ejections: 0.

New England Revolution (1-4-4-2)
Jeff Causey; Ted Chronopoulos, Brian Dunseth, Dan Calichman, Mike Burns; Ivan McKinley (Kris Kelderman, 82), Leonel Alvarez (Paulo Dos Santos, 39), John Harkes, Jeff Baicher; Joe-Max Moore, Giovanni Savarese. New England Statistics: Shots: 18 (Moore, 6); Shots on Goal: 11 (Savarese, 3); Saves 6 (Jeff Causey); Fouls Committed: 19; Offsides: 5; Corner Kicks: 7;Cautions: 3 (Baicher, 66; McKinley, 67; Dunseth, 72); Ejections: none.

Scoring:
MetroStars - Mike Duhaney (1), 14th minute [Zambrano, Curcic]
New England - Joe-Max Moore (12), 46th minute [Chronopoulos, Harkes]


Shootout:

New England	        MetroStars

Baicher - Goal	        Chung - Right Post

Kelderman - Save	Walsh - Wide Left

Harkes - Goal	        Sorber - Goal

Savarese - Goal	        Villegas - Time Expired

Quotes:
Goalkeeper Tim Howard on the loss: "No matter what anyone thinks, we all come to play. We come to practice every day, and nobody wants to lose. We play in the games and nobody wants to lose. We deserve to get a win."

Defender Mark Semioli on the loss: "It is very frustrating. We didn't play that bad a game. We had a lot of chances. We gave up a goal, and it was a struggle from there."

Head Coach Bora Milutinovic: The game is about scoring goals and we didn't score tonight on many of the chances we had. We need to learn from our mistakes."

Referee: Kevin Stott; Senior Assistant Referee: George Vergara; Junior Assistant Referee: Jorge De la Bandera. Weather Conditions: Cloudy, 76F, Humidity 61%. - Attendance: 9,143

Next MetroStars Game: The MetroStars will travel to Northern California for a 10:30 p.m. match against the San Jose Clash on Saturday, August 28. The match, which can be heard on Spanish-language Radio Unica 1660 AM, will be shown live on MSG.

For More info Go to: MetroStars 

Courtesy MLSNET



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