The past two weeks have presented 51黑料 City SC with the lifeline it needs in order to salvage its seasons, games against teams below the playoff line that are the very ones the team has to catch.
In both cases City SC has got nothing out of it other than disappointment.
City SC fell to Real Salt Lake 3-2 on Saturday at America First Field in Sandy, Utah, dropping it further into its hole in the Western Conference. It was the team鈥檚 third loss in a row, ran its winless streak to five games and left it with just one win in its past 17 games. The math required for City SC to make the playoffs is the hardest this side of a calculus textbook.
鈥淲e know that it was an important game for us,鈥 said Klauss, who scored a goal and just missed a second that would have tied it in the 98th minute. 鈥淲e had a chance to get closer to them, give us a chance also to be fighting for a playoff spot. I think this one, it's a game that we had to win, and I think if we play the way we played in the second half, with a little bit more consistency, a little bit more clean in important situations during the game, I think we would get the results. I think the team is improving, but we still having ups and downs during the game.鈥
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鈥淵eah, we let this one get away,鈥 said interim coach David Critchley. 鈥淲e were able to quickly get a hold of the data. We beat them in (expected goals), we beat them in shots. We were equal in shots on target, and then we beat them in crosses. So there was some good data there for us to show that there's probably a lot of positivity when I go back and analyze the game, but we're still letting moments slip away from us that we need to execute on a higher level, whether that's just the extra weight of the pass or a missed passing opportunity. I know Klauss at the end there had almost the equalizer for us. We're just in a position now where those moments aren't going our way. So we have to generate more. If the look is on our side, and we have momentum, Klauss puts that one in the goal, probably 10 out of 10, but it's not so we have to generate more of those chances to make sure he gets he gets one or two.鈥
With 13 games to play, City SC is looking at winning eight of them just to stay in the race and then, depending on how much Western Conference teams beat each other down the stretch, needing two or three more wins to bolster its chances to make the playoffs. That would be playing at a pace that only one team in the league, Cincinnati, has played at this season.
The long odds, as gloomy as they may sound, are actually giving Klauss confidence. There isn鈥檛 any pressure left, as far as he鈥檚 concerned.
鈥淲e know our chances are not that high, and we have nothing to lose,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e have to enjoy what we're doing. We have to play with confidence. We have to build chemistry between us. We have to build chemistry in what Critch is implementing in the team. I don't think we have pressure right now. For me, it's the opposite. We have to just give 100 percent, we have to understand what Critch wants from us. We have the structure there as a team. We have to train hard. We have to be clean in the moments of the game.鈥
Critchley talked on Thursday about looking for a complete game from his team, and he didn鈥檛 get. City SC gave up a goal six minutes in, then gave up another just before the half to go down 2-0 at the break. City SC had the better of the second half, but there wasn鈥檛 enough there to dig out of the hole it put itself in.
鈥淩eminded us a little bit of Orlando in that aspect that we came out, and we put ourselves in a tough position to go win the game,鈥 Critchley said, harkening back to 10 days ago when it trailed 3-0 after 22 minutes. 鈥淚 thought the guys fought through it. I thought the guys gave good effort today. But we put ourselves in that position where we're making it really difficult to win the games. So we just have to improve in those areas in how we start the game.鈥
鈥淚 think we have moments,鈥 Klauss said. 鈥淪ometimes we are good in the first phase of the game, and then we are not clean in the second phase. Or sometimes good in the first and the second and then the third is not good, or sometimes we are not even good in the first phase, and then make the things difficult to go to move forward. I think we have to get it right through these three phases of the game. We have to be cleaner on the ball. We have the structure. The structure is there, the spaces are there, and we just have to use better.鈥
For the third time in four games, City SC gave up three or more goals, which is a disaster waiting to happen. In its past four games, City SC has scored two goals twice and three goals once, and all that offense has earned it one point.
鈥淲hen you score these amounts of goals in games, you're expected to pick up a lot more points than what we're picking up,鈥 Critchley said. 鈥淭he offense, and the collective offense, not just the attacking players, has been something good, but the collective defense, not just Roman (Burki) and the back four, the entire team, we need to get better on the defensive side of the ball. We need to be in positions where we eliminate the opponent scoring on us, because we know, we've seen it now, we'll create chances. We outshot them, not just in the number of shots, but in the quality with the xG tonight, so it was one that got away from us.鈥
There were some milestones in the game. Homegrown player Tyson Pearce, 17, made his MLS debut, coming off the bench in the 63rd minute. Jaziel Orozco, one of three players called up from City2 for the game, started at left back and drew favorable reviews, though it was pass intended for Klauss in the 43rd minute that got picked off and led to a counter that put RSL up 2-0. 鈥淛ust a little miscommunication from me and him just understanding each other,鈥 Orozco said.
But the only reason Pearce and Orozco played was because so many other players are hurt. For the second game in a row, City SC was without its top two centerbacks (and two more behind them) and its two central midfielders (and their top backup), an absence of four key players in the team鈥檚 spine that are near impossible to replace. The team also held out Michael Wentzel, taking a cautious approach after he felt something in a hamstring. 鈥淚t's very tough,鈥 Critchley said. 鈥淭here's no doubt those players are big pieces to this team. Once we can get them back available, I think it'll be an absolute different picture for us with performance and results.
A header by Klauss off a corner kick gave him his sixth goal in six games as he continues to be the team鈥檚 most dangerous offensive player. City SC seemed to be picking up speed and threatening to tie the game, but in the 64th minute, an RSL counter ended with defender Josh Yaro sliding to try to break up a crossing pass into the box and knocking it into his own net to take the lead back to two goals. Yaro got the goal back in 81st minute when a corner kick by Marcel Hartel somehow found him in the box and bounced off him and into the goal to make it 3-2. In the seventh minute of stoppage time, Hartel played a ball into the box that Klauss got his head on but put wide.
鈥淚t was a good chance, but it's also not easy,鈥 Klauss said. 鈥淥f course, I have to do better with the header.鈥
51黑料 City SC beat writer Tom Timmermann and co-host Beth O'Malley talk about the team's winless streak hitting four games with a 1-0 loss to Houston that was devoid of much offense, but saw the team allow only one goal with a very makeshift lineup. But one goal allowed was one too many.
