Week 7: San Jose 4 - New York 0

There is losing, and there is getting blown out.  Metro looked similar to its battered spouse form of last season, falling to the San Jose Earthquakes 4-0.  Although this terrible loss is due in large part to Metro being down a man for 77 minutes, it was still incredibly painful to watch.  Despite Luke Sassano's 13th minute red card, New York looked fairly good in the first, until they gave up a goal with only a minute before the intermission.  Things only got worse in the second, when the wheels truly fell off and San Jose easily vanquished the visitors.

Despite a rash of injuries, Hans Backe only made two changes from last weeks game, and one of them was a tactical choice, which Backe probably regrets making at this point.  Bouna stayed in goal, with Miller, Ream, Petke, and Luke Sassano rounding out the backline.  Sassano made his first league appearance of the season, and was played over a healthy Jeremy Hall, who has started every game this season at right back.  Stammler, Lindpere, Richards, and rookie Tony Tchani (who made his first start of the year for an injured Carl Robinson) made up the midfield, and the familiar Angel and Ibrahim started at striker.

Luke Sassano, who has looked good in the Open Cup and is reportedly an extremely hard worker, failed to capitalize on an excellent chance to cement his spot on New York's roster.  He is currently a marginal player for the team, and picking up a red card for an ugly tackle on SJ midfielder Bobby Convey within 15 minutes of his first start probably didn't help his chances.  His mistake was extremely costly, as Metro was constantly struggling for possession and on its back heel throughout the match.  Sassano should not be alone in shouldering the blame for a tough loss, as no one played exceptionally well and the entire back line was horrendous.

The first half could have been a lot worse than it was.  Although New York gave up large spells of possession, it was hanging into the game and managing to create chances.  Although the play wasn't terrible, San Jose looked the more dangerous side, with Joey Gjertsen often getting the better of Roy Miller on the right-hand side, managing to make the Costa Rican look bad for the first time in his Metro career.  This happened to another new New Yorker, as rookie Tim Ream finally played like a first year pro and got exposed on all four of San Jose's goals.  The first of these came at the end of the 1st period, with Ryan Johnson tapping in an excellent Bobby Convey cross 15 yards out, leaving Tim Ream in the dust in the process.  The game likely would have ended with a better scoreline for New York if they managed to hold on for the entire first half, but after their first goal they were essentially doomed to give up more.

The second half went quite poorly for the visiting side, with possession, chances, and competence all alluding the Red Bulls.  In the 54th minute Joey Gjertsen (who along with Bobby Convery had an excellent game for the Quakes) juked Ream easily in the box, freeing himself for an open shot on Bouna.  Although his shot was off balance and right at Coundoul, Bouna reverted to his laughable form and let the ball slowly go under him.  Although he did have some good saves throughout the game, it is hard not to remember the New York keeper in an entirely negative light after letting in such a soft goal.  The fact that he would let in two more before the game ended doesn't help.  Jeremy Hall, Danleigh Borman, and Sinisa Ubiparipovic all entered the match (for Ibrahim, Miller, and Tchani, who was holding a yellow card) at different points in the second half and each of them did little to stop the bleeding.  By the 70th minute San Jose possession was so dominant it seemed as though 10 minutes would go buy without a Metro player touching the ball.

The 77th minute saw the Earthquakes score its third goal of the match, with Chris Wondolowski sliding past Tim Ream and beating Bouna to knock in an excellent goalmouth cross from Ramiro Corrales.  Although Ream got burned, Corrales was completely unmarked and allowed plenty of time and space to send in the pass.  Bobby Burling would complete the rout in the 85th minute, ambling through the box unmarked on a SJ corner and powering a header without any pressure from New York defense.  Convey, who took the corner, had three assists.

The game was hard to watch, and there were few positives.  New York managed to hold on for nearly a half while a man down, and rookie Tony Tchani did look pretty good in the midfield (this game wasn't really the best chance for anyone to showcase their skills though).  Still, things fell apart and the usually airtight Metro defense looked atrocious and allowed four goals.  With an open cup match against New England on Wednesday, and another league match in a week, Hans Backe and company will have to turn things around quickly and make sure this match was just a fluke to recapture some of the momentum the team built up over the past couple weeks.

Dave Braneck is a blogger and an all around soccer fan who represents North Jersey to the fullest and contributes to Dailyharrison.com

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