51黑料

The pain continues to grow for 51黑料 City SC, and at this point, there鈥檚 no telling when it鈥檚 going to end.

City SC鈥檚 winless streak hit nine games and the length of time since its last win hit two months after the team blew a two-goal lead in the final 20 minutes of the game, settling for a 2-2 tie with Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday night at Energizer Park that saw chances for a feel-good, long-awaited win shrivel up and die in a matter of minutes.

To lose a lead to your biggest rival, which is having every bit as bad a season as City SC has, at home, and come away with only a tie is not something that sits well with anyone, particularly the fans who booed loudly at the final whistle. Many agreed this was a tie that felt like a loss.

鈥淚鈥檓 very concerned, obviously,鈥� said goalkeeper Roman Burki, who returned to the lineup after missing nine games with a broken hand. 鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 there for the team now for (nine) games and now coming back, starting really well and still not winning a home game is, I don鈥檛 know. It鈥檚 hard to explain, like, I don鈥檛 know exactly what the reason is that we are not good enough to win games.鈥�

Burki is not alone in having a hard time putting a finger on what happens to City SC late in games. It took more than 35 minutes after the game before City SC coach Olof Mellberg got to the interview room as everyone stayed in the City SC locker room to dissect the game.

鈥淒efinitely the question: What went wrong?鈥� said Burki. 鈥淒ifferent opinions. Obviously, after a game like this, it feels like a loss, especially because we knew about the importance of this game for the fans. We wish we could have won this game and close the game out for us, and unfortunately, again, it didn鈥檛 work out the way we wanted.鈥�

鈥淚 mean, I can鈥檛 explain this,鈥� said midfielder Celio Pompeu, who scored in the 15th minute to put City SC ahead. 鈥淏ut this is just a game that we were up 2-0. We have chances to kill the game, but we don鈥檛. We don鈥檛 take our chances, and then we let them come back to one and then the header (to tie). In my opinion, you just have to be able to learn how to kill games, how to finish 鈥� 3-0, 4-0, it鈥檚 over. They give up.鈥�

In its past four MLS games, City SC has allowed eight goals in the 70th minute or later, a rather stunning series of breakdowns. For the season, City SC has been outscored 10-3 after the 70th minute. In the past four games, City SC has been ahead twice and tied once going into the 70th minute and has come away with two ties, costing the team five points, which is the difference between next-to-last in the Western Conference and being in a playoff spot.

The team has three points in its past nine games, which you could say puts them in the Carnell Zone. When the team hit a stretch like that last season, with just three points out of a possible 27, Bradley Carnell was fired as head coach.

鈥淚 think we have a problem to close the games,鈥� Burki said. 鈥淚f you remember last game against San Diego, we had a lot of chances to score a goal. We should have never lost this game, but we didn鈥檛 score. And if you don鈥檛 score and you have that many chances, at least, don鈥檛 lose the game. But again, after I don鈥檛 know, 60 or 70 minutes, we gave the game out of our hands because we conceded two goals (in the 79th and 87th minutes). We have to be strong and mentally, physically strong enough to close these games because today we had a 2-0 up, and again, we couldn鈥檛 close out the game. So that鈥檚 definitely something that needs to be looked at.鈥�

鈥淲e really need to build on our physical capacity,鈥� said Mellberg, who had to watch the game from a box upstairs as he served a one-game suspension for accumulated yellow cards. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not where we want it to be at the moment for various reasons. First of all, we need players to be able to play 90 minutes. And we need a lot of energy from players coming on as well, and for various reasons, we don鈥檛 have that at the moment.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a puzzle to be able to have that energy that we want for 90 minutes.鈥�

In addition to getting Burki back in the lineup, City SC got center backs Henry Kessler and Joakim Nilsson back on the game-day roster, with Kessler coming in as a sub in the 78th minute, just after Sporting tied the game. But the team was without left back Jannes Horn, who hurt his knee Tuesday in practice and will be out for what Mellberg said would hopefully be a short time.

So while the pieces may be getting back together, it鈥檚 still going to take a while, especially in the most crowded stretch of City SC鈥檚 schedule, with another run of three games in eight days starting Saturday.

To make things worse, it looked like a night where fate might finally smile on City SC. Pompeu put City SC up 1-0 in the 15th minute on a cracker of a shot from the top of the penalty area that curved inside the far post. Cedric Teuchert scored his third goal of the season in the 44th minute, trying to get out of the way of a shot by Tomas Ostrak but instead deflecting it over the head of Kansas City goalkeeper John Pulskamp. Mellberg said he thought it was City SC鈥檚 worst first half of the season, but they were still ahead.

City SC picked up its pace in the second half and played better but couldn鈥檛 score while rebuffing SKC鈥檚 chances. Then, in the 70th minute, the troubles began. SKC defender Tim Liebold worked a give-and-go with Daniel Salloi around Akil Watts and Liebold scored from close range on a shot Burki got his hand on.

Seven minutes later, Dejan Jovaljic, who scored twice in the first meeting between the teams this season 鈥� both after the 70th minute 鈥� did it again, heading in a free kick from Shapi Suleymanov, leaping over City SC鈥檚 Simon Becher to knock it in.

鈥淭he first goal is an easy 1-2,鈥� Burki said. 鈥淚n my opinion, it鈥檚 harder to defend, but still, you have to do something. It鈥檚 not the first time they tried to play 1-2. I think they had a chance before where they did that. And it was just too easy for them to score a goal. If you concede set piece, it鈥檚 a lot of mentality: Do you really want to win the ball more than your opponent? In this moment when we conceded the goal for 2-2, I don鈥檛 think we were even close to winning that header.鈥�