Nashville 3-4 Colorado
May 31, 1997 — Ezell Park (Nashville, Tenn.)
Scoring Summary
SEA — Chugger Adair (78′)
Three goals by Mitchell wasted in shootout loss
(Nashville Tennessean, 06.01.97)
By Jim Wyatt
Jamel Mitchell got his hat trick, but in the end it was Colorado which pulled one out of the hat over the Nashville Metros last night.
The Foxes, playing a man short the entire second half, scored on a free kick in the closing seconds of regulation, then outshot the Metros in a shootout to steal a 4-3 win at the Columbia Soccer Complex.
It was an especially tough loss for the Metros, which equaled its entire offensive output of the season on Mitchell’s three goals — all on headers.
But Colorado (6-3) capitalized on late miscues by Nashville defenders and won it by outscoring the Metros 2-1 in the shootout.
“Our tactical game, our mental game — we were so exposed out there tonight it was ridiculous,” dejected Metros coach Greg Petersen said. “The toughest opponent we have right now is ourselves.”
Nashville (4-4) took the lead 3-2 with nine minutes left when Mitchell slithered through the Colorado defense and scored off Ali Hussein’s second assist of the game.
But a foul on Hussein with 15 seconds left gave Chris Martinez a free kick, and he converted, sending the game into overtime.
Hussein, Ken Rogaski and Luis Berbari all received yellow cards for Nashville, and two Colorado players were carded, including a red one given to Chad Ashton in the latter portion of the first half.
Colorado played from that point on with just nine field players.
“We battled back,” Colorado coach Lorne Donaldson said. “We lost our best player on that red card early, but we still managed to pull it out.”
Mitchell, Nashville’s leading scorer despite playing in just three of the eight games, certainly provided some offensive spark in the loss.
“I’m feeling more comfortable; I think the offense is starting to come together,” Mitchell, the nephew of Otis Thorpe of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons, said. “This was a tough one to lose, no doubt about it. It was great getting the goals, but we wanted to win. We’ll just have to keep working harder.”
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