CARSON, Calif. -- As time was running out in the MetroStars' first-ever match, in front of 46,826 curious souls at Giants Stadium against the New England Revolution on April 20, 1996, the visitors tried one more foray toward the opposing goal.
World Cup and U.S. international goalkeeper Tony Meola saved a shot. A MetroStars defender, Italian Nicola Caricola, facing the net and Meola, tried to clear the ball out of harm's way. Instead, he placed the shot past a stunned Meola with 11 seconds remaining.
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With this new league, Major League Soccer, using a running clock and no injury or stoppage time, the 11 seconds quickly counted down. The Revs had won and the MetroStars had lost.
And so it began.
Thirteen regular-season seasons of frustration. 13 seasons of futility. 13 seasons of angst.
Some supporters, former and present call it the curse of Nicola Caricola.
Some fans claim the club was just plain cursed.
Some people have just cursed at the bad luck and performances.
But like the miracle New York Mets of 1969, that can be erased with one more victory. The Columbus Crew, the best team during the regular season -- just take a look at the Supporters' Shield the club won -- stands in the club's way of MLS glory, history and mythology at MLS Cup 2008.
If the team, now called the Red Bulls, defeats the Crew and takes a rather improbable victory lap around the Home Depot Center at around 6 p.m. ET, it certainly won't erase all that history. But a win certainly would make more than a dozen years of misery and waiting all worthwhile.
Curse or not, the club was on the wrong track in 1996. By Memorial Day, the coach, Eddie Firmani, yes, the same Eddie Firmani who directed the legendary New York Cosmos to a few North American Soccer League titles during the heyday of Pele, Giorgio Chinaglia and Franz Beckenbauer, was gone, starting an unwanted trend and tradition.
Carlos Queiroz, the former Portuguese national coach, was brought in to salvage the season. He did well. But after D.C. United, the eventual champion, eliminated the MetroStars from the quarterfinals of the playoffs, Queiroz left after being lured by the millions of Nagoya Grampus Eight in the J-League (Japan).
And so it went.
Like it or not, the Red Bulls became the laughingstock of the league. The so-called flagship of the league woefully underachieved and became a non-factor for many seasons.
Oh, they had their moments. The 2000 team guided by Octavio Zambrano was one of the most entertaining sides in league history with the likes of a lethal Clint Mathis in his prime (a record five goals against the Dallas Burn), former Colombian World Cup Adolfo Valencia, a U.S. standout such as Tab Ramos and a defense that rarely took prisoners.
But more often than not, there was underachieving and frustration under the direction of some of the most famous coaches in the United States (U.S. national team coaches Bob Bradley and Bruce Arena) and the world (Carlos Alberto Parreira, who guided Brazil to the 1994 World Cup crown and Bora Milutinovic, who coached five countries in the World Cup, including the U.S. national team).
In 1999, the team hit rock bottom, prompting one national soccer magazine to call the MetroStars in a headline, "The worst soccer team money can buy."
It took 11 coaches in 13 seasons and some 203 players -- both MLS records -- before the team got to MLS Cup.
The man responsible for the success is coach Juan Carlos Osorio, who was being blamed for the team's near failure of nearly missing the playoffs. They have endured more than their share of headaches (the retirement of captain Claudio Reyna and the sale of teenage prodigy Jozy Altidore to Spanish club Villarreal, among others).
The Red Bulls managed to get an invitation to the desk as the eighth and final seed -- in the Western Conference -- on the very last day of the season, as D.C. United lost to the Crew 1-0, about 10 days after goalkeeper Jon Conway and defender Jeff Parke were suspended by the league for using performance-enhancing substances.
Using an untested 23-year-old in the nets, the Red Bulls caught lightning in a bottle. They eliminated the two-time defending champion Houston Dynamo in the conference semifinals, climaxed by a stunning and amazing 3-0 road win. They then went to Salt Lake City to withstand an incredible second-half assault on their goal (Real Salt Lake hit the post three times in the match) en route to a 1-0 win.
Danny Cepero has been far from a one-man hero show. Just about every player has stood out at one time or another. Dave van den Bergh. Chris Leitch. Luke Sassano. Sinisa Ubiparipovic. John Wolyniec. Diego Jimenez. Dane Richards. Kevin Goldthwaite. Carlos Mendes. Jorge Rojas. Andrew Boyens. And of course, team captain Juan Pablo Angel.
Will the team become destiny's darlings as the first MLS team to finish below .500 during the regular season to win the title (the 2005 and fourth-place Los Angeles Galaxy finished at 13-13-6).
Or will the supporters suffer even more angst getting so close, not unlike Boston Red Sox fans did for nearly a century before becoming world champions in 2004.
It is not fair to compare or measure what MetroStars/Red Bulls fans have endured compared to the generations of disappointment and frustration in which the Red Sox fans were forced to live and die with. But the New York/New Jersey club became U.S. professional soccer's version of the poster child of futility.
A win, an ugly one in regulation, a dramatic one in extra time or surviving the dreaded penalty kicks after 120 minutes of soccer, Red Bulls/MetroStars fans don't care.
They'll take a championship any way they it can be packaged.
After all, they've waited -- patiently and impatiently -- for more than a dozen years to open the present.
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