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Well, here鈥檚 hoping the pending return of 51黑料 City SC goalkeeper and captain Roman Burki brings a widespread and performance-lifting injection of energy and confidence to his club this week. If not, it looks as though this club could be approaching a tipping point that calls for some tough decisions for a second consecutive season.

During his Sunday morning radio appearance on KMOX, City SC sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel said he expects Burki to return for Wednesday night鈥檚 match against Sporting Kansas City at Energizer Park.

Pfannenstiel also acknowledged that he sensed the deflation and disappointment from the fan base following Saturday night鈥檚 frustrating 2-1 loss to San Diego FC in front of a sellout crowd downtown.

That loss stretched the club鈥檚 MLS winless streak to eight matches (not including a U.S. Open Cup victory at home last week). With a 2-6-4 record and 10 points through 12 matches, City SC began this week in 13th place in the Western Conference. They鈥檝e got the same number of points as Houston Dynamo FC and Sporting Kansas City, three points behind Real Salt Lake.

Twelve matches into the season, it鈥檚 already becoming an open question whether City SC鈥檚 first-year head coach Olof Mellberg is coaching to keep his job.

Last season, the City SC leadership duo of Pfannenstiel and president/general manager Diego Gigliani decided they needed to change course. They fired coach Bradley Carnell after a nine-match winless streak and a record of 3-7-10 through the first 20 matches of the season (20-19-15 overall).

At the time, Pfannenstiel said the team didn鈥檛 win enough games and didn鈥檛 pick up enough points to keep their goal of making the playoffs within reach. In the nine-match stretch that preceded the firing, City SC earned just three of 27 possible points.

Similarly to this season, injuries deprived the club of key players in the final weeks of Carnell鈥檚 tenure. Forward Tomas Ostrak鈥檚 season ended before it started; meanwhile, the club also missed striker Klauss, forward Celio Pompeu, Joakim Nilsson, Josh Yaro and forward Eduard Lowen (personal reasons) for chunks of time. Kyle Hiebert also spent time away to play for the Canadian national team.

Pfannenstiel took a rather hard-line stance on the injuries in the wake of the Carnell firing, saying, 鈥淲e did have injuries, but we had injuries last year as well. At the same time, we still won enough games.鈥�

That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 certainly not a manufactured narrative to point out that City SC鈥檚 season is nearing that same tipping point.

The parameters were set by the City SC brass last season.

Speaking of last season, one aspect that City SC could鈥檝e benefited from carrying over from the end that year was its scoring.

In those last 14 matches after the coaching change, they were shut out twice and averaged 1.57 goals per match under interim coach John Hackworth.

Entering Wednesday鈥檚 rivalry match against Kansas City, City SC has scored nine goals in 12 MLS matches this season. They鈥檝e been held scoreless in six matches.

City SC has shown as knack for creating scoring chances and not finishing them, which makes matches like Saturday鈥檚 so aggravating.

鈥淲e feel like we deserve more,鈥� City SC midfielder Conrad Wallem said Saturday. 鈥淲e fought. We just didn鈥檛 put our chances away. We didn鈥檛 punish them in the moments we have to punish them. Then, against a good team like San Diego, they will punish us when they have the opportunity.鈥�

In painful-yet-fitting fashion, the lone goal City SC scored came on the third attempt during a mad scramble in front of the San Diego net with City SC trailing 2-0 in the 90th minute. Hiebert booted home a chance at point-blank range after an initial shot was saved and then a rebound shot hit the post.

City SC finished the night with an expected goals of 2.7 compared to just 1 for San Diego.

鈥淚 felt like today we had a good plan. We executed well, especially the first half,鈥� Hiebert said on Saturday night. 鈥淲e created a lot of high pressing turnovers. We knew they were going to try to play through everything.

鈥淲e just couldn鈥檛 find that early goal. I feel like we get one, get the crowd behind us and we鈥檇 start rolling. That鈥檚 football, unfortunately.鈥�

For the season, City SC鈥檚 expected goals is 17.4 鈥� a difference of slightly more than eight goals from its actual total. The gap between the expected goals and actual for City SC is more than double that of San Diego FC, Cincinnati, Charlotte, LAFC, Philadelphia, Minnesota, Orlando, Seattle, Chicago, Vancouver and San Jose.

None of this has created an ideal launching pad for Mellberg鈥檚 tenure. However, City SC did not hire a coach with a track record of immediate change or a quick turnaround specialist.

When they introduced Mellberg as their choice as the new head coach to lead their club after a 鈥済lobal search,鈥� the data they touted pointed to Mellberg as a coach capable of developing players and teams over time. More time than he鈥檚 had so far.

They waited 20 matches last season with an experienced coach that had as much familiarity as possible with the roster.

Mellberg is well shy of that, and he鈥檚 a first-year coach in a new league.

Any sort of quick trigger would clearly undermine the search process and put the spotlight squarely on the people who oversaw that process 鈥� Pfannenstiel and Gigliani.

The easiest answer to all of this would be City SC starting to score and win games in the very near future. Unfortunately, easy may not be in the cards.