Secaucus, NJ (Thursday, February 10, 2000) - Brian Kelly scored two-second half goals and Thomas Dooley scored eight minutes into his preseason debut to lead the MetroStars to a 3-1 win in an MLS Spring Training 2000 game at Miami Fusion's Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida Thursday night. Head coach Octavio Zambrano, who joined nine Metro players in their debuts, used 22 players in the preseason victory.

Thomas Dooley, acquired on Friday, January 28th in a trade with the Columbus Crew for Mike Duhaney, opened the scoring in the eight-minute. The former U.S. National Team captain took a perfect through pass from Mark Chung, and put it past Matt Jordan from seven yards for the early 1-0 lead. The Burn came back in the 24th minute on a set play by Chad Deering who kicked the ball through the Metros wall and into the lower left-hand corner of the net.

Both sides went into the half tied at one apiece before making significant and expected substitutions in the second half. Brian Kelly, who replaced Mark Chung in the 61st minute, played a major difference in the game scoring two goals. He scored in the 67th minute on a cross by Mark Semioli, who fended off several Burn defenders, and managed to cross the ball deep inside the box to Kelly for the 2-1 lead.

Kelly extended the lead 12 minutes later when rookie midfielder Colby Jackson sped past several defenders into the midfield, and gave Kelly a perfectly timed pass up the left side of the field good enough to beat goalkeeper Matt Jordan one-on-one for the goal with a defender trailing.

"We had a good win and took a few steps in the right direction tonight," said Kelly. "This is a reflection of the hard work the players and coaching staff have put together in the early part of the preseason."

METROSTARS--Mike Ammann (Tim Howard 45), Ramiro Corrales (Colby Jackson 73), Mohammad Khakpour (Brent Sancho 65), Mike Petke (Peterson Jerome 70), Mark Semioli (Jake Dancy 70), Steve Shak (Nino Da Silva 63), Thomas Dooley (Walter Buckeridge 61), Mark Chung (Brian Kelly 61), Mike Sorber (Orlando Perez 66), Lawrence Lozzano (Alex Comas 56), Petter Villegas (Miles Joseph 53) TOTAL SHOTS: 11 (Kelly 2, Chung 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 7 (Kelly 2); FOULS: 12 (Shak 5); OFFSIDE: 7; CORNER KICKS: 5; SAVES: 3 (Ammann 2, Howard 1); CAUTIONS: Villegas 29.

DALLAS BURN--Matt Jordan, Eric Dade (Paul Broome 46), Richard Farrer (John Atkins 0, Antonio Martinez 71), Darren Warham (Ricardo Iribarren 46), Sergi Daniv (Tony Soto 46, Trevor Marum 79), Mark Santel (Lazo Alavanja 46), Chad Deering (Osman Lopez 87), Ted Eck (Aleksey Korol 46), Bobby Rhine (Gustavo Melfa 60), Kirk Wilson (Brian Piesner 46), Jason Kreis (Steve Bernal 46)TOTAL SHOTS: 7 (Korol 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 4 (four players with 1); FOULS: 10 (Daniv 2, Rhine 2, Melfa 2); OFFSIDE: 2; CORNER KICKS: 2; SAVES: Jordan 4; CAUTIONS: Dade 33, Melfa 63.

Referee: Marcel Yonan; Referee's Assistants: Robert Fereday, Todd Perry. Weather: Clear.


Courtesy MetroStars