First for Freddy

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Freddy Adu’s first Major League Soccer goal wasn’t enough to bring D.C. United a victory.

In a battle between the Eastern Conference’s two top teams, reserve forward Fabian Taylor scored two second-half goals yesterday as the MetroStars rallied for a 3-2 victory before 31,419 at Giants Stadium.

Adu entered the game in the 54th minute for forward Alecko Eskandarian but was not much of a factor other than scoring his goal. Regardless, Adu said some of the pressure was off now that he has scored.

“Every player wants to get that first goal. Once you get that first goal, you just want to go out there and start scoring more goals, and it opens everything up,” Adu said.

United (1-1-1) was trailing 3-1 when Adu struck in the 75th minute. Rookie midfielder Joshua Gros rolled a cross through the 6-yard box from the left side. Adu, who was making a far post run, cut in front of MetroStars defender Chris Leitch, slid under him and toe-poked his first goal with his left foot.

“I had to work really hard to get that goal because I was way behind the defender, but I kind of threw myself in front of him and just stuck my foot in there and the ball deflected off my foot into the back of the net,” Adu said.

The real story of the game was Taylor, who became the first MLS player this season to record a multi-goal game when he scored in the 50th and 63rd minutes. The MetroStars collected their three goals in a 13-minute span.

“My job is to score, Freddy Adu or not,” Taylor said. “My job is to do the job for my team and I scored, so that’s what I did.”

With United leading 1-0, Taylor pounced on an unlucky rebound after a great play by United goalkeeper Doug Warren. Warren, who started in the net over Nick Rimando, dived to his left to make the save on a Taylor header, but the ball sat at the right post instead of carrying over the end line. Taylor quickly finished his first shot by knocking in the rebound.

Four minutes later, the MetroStars took a 2-1 lead on a controversial goal by forward John Wolyniec after no foul was called against midfielder Amado Guevara for barreling into United defender Bryan Namoff while stripping him of the ball on the left side. Guevara expertly served the ball to the back post, from where Wolyniec beat Warren with a diving header to the right corner.

“That was a foul on Bryan Namoff — there’s no question about that,” United coach Peter Nowak said.

The MetroStars (2-0-0) found renewed confidence in the second half after Taylor replaced ineffective striker Jeff Magee with the score 1-1. The Jamaican put the game out of reach in the 63rd minute when he gave the MetroStars a 3-1 lead.

MetroStars midfielder Eddie Gaven dropped the ball off to Taylor, who blasted it through Warren, from about 8 yards. Warren got a hand on the shot, but the ball’s velocity caused it to trickle over the goal line.

“We didn’t come out strong in the second half — we came out flat,” United midfielder Ben Olsen said. “I’m sure they got reamed at halftime. They came out sharp and fast, and we didn’t do a good job of holding down the first 15 minutes. We didn’t respond well after the goal, their first one.”

Good things usually happen to United when midfielder Olsen scores — like winning games. Before yesterday, United was 18-0-0 in games when he scored. His first of the season yesterday resulted from a precision counter attack off a MetroStars corner kick.

United midfielder Bobby Convey collected a loose ball in the midfield and played a long ball up the right flank to forward Jaime Moreno, 35 yards away from the MetroStars goal. Moreno carried the ball into the 18-yard box and laid off a perfect pass to midfielder Dema Kovalenko, who was making an overlapping run on the right.

Kovalenko crossed the ball through the 6-yard box to Olsen at the far left post. The ball was so well-placed that all Olsen had to do was raise his left leg and tap it in at the left post for a 1-0 United lead in the 26th minute.