Through 10 games this season, City SC is tied with Columbus for the fewest losses in Major League Soccer with one; it is also tied with nine other teams for the fewest wins in the league with two.
The one place City SC stands supreme is in ties. City SC picked up its league-high seventh tie in 10 games Saturday in Houston, playing to a 0-0 tie with the Houston Dynamo at Shell Energy Stadium. However fine the line is in soccer between a win and a loss, it’s apparently more than big enough to accommodate City SC. City SC can’t stop tying games.
“You learn how to win games,†City SC coach Bradley Carnell said, “and when you win one or two then you go on a streak. You can learn to lose games as well. And then there’s the other part, you learn to draw games. So at the moment, where we’re so impressive in so many ways, I don’t think we’re far off. … We want to just make sure that we’re doing our business away from home and all we can ask for is a clean sheet and a chance to win the game. And I think we had that tonight. I think that was what we’ll walk away with here.â€
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City SC is undefeated in its past four games, and has three shutouts in those games, which is a pretty good turnaround for a team that had allowed 10 goals in the four games prior to its shutout blitz. But in those three shutouts, the team has taken only five points because it failed to score in two of those games. As a rule, teams are generally much better with ties on the road than ties at home, so this one was a bit more palatable than some others, but it also has to fall in the category of a game that wouldn’t have taken too much to become a win for City SC.
“You can look at it from both sides,†said goalkeeper Roman Burki, who is tied for the league lead in shutouts with four. “I think the positive side is we don’t lose games. We are staying in the game. We survived difficult phases, and we defended good, and on the other hand, today once again and I think it’s a little bit through the whole season, we need a lot of chances to score a goal. And today again, I think we had the better chances to score goals but unfortunately, we didn’t score. So we need to look at that in training and keep doing it to get the confidence back in training and just work harder, maybe a little bit more focused in training.â€
City SC had a season-low 36.6 percent possession, but it was more dangerous when it had the ball than Houston was. But only to a point. City SC took 17 shots in the game; only three of them required a save by Houston goalkeeper Steve Clark.
No player had a tougher time than striker Klauss, whose early season scoring struggles seemed to have faded away after he scored goals in two consecutive games. Against Houston, Klauss took five shots, none of which were on goal. He looked to have a goal gift wrapped in the 56th minute from Tomas Ostrak, who set him up for an open shot from close range, but Klauss slipped on the shot, got under the ball and put it high over the crossbar. In a throwback to earlier in the season, Klauss laid on the ground in the penalty area on his back, a look of disbelief on his face.
Klauss wasn’t alone, he just had more chances than anyone else.
“In training, we just need to be a little bit angrier if you don’t score,†Burki said. “Not just, OK, I’ll get the next one. We need to maybe analyze why we are not scoring goals or are we taking training seriously enough in front of the goal. Are we doing enough to improve and to be more comfortable in tight situations in their box to make the right decision.â€
“Klauss does a lot for the team,†Carnell said. “He could have rewarded himself with a big chance there where he finds himself in the corner of the 6 and just gets it sky high. Unfortunate for him, but those are the types of moments you wish for him because he deserves that.â€
Tomas Totland had a good scoring chance in the first half when he came in alone on the right wing, but his shot went straight to Clark.
While Houston took 23 shots, the most for a City SC opponent this season, the shots produced little threat. Burki made a season-high nine saves but it didn’t seem that way to him.
“I was surprised when I heard that number,†he said. “It felt like three or four saves, but it’s like when you look at the game, it can go both ways. And if we lose here, everybody is going to be frustrated why we didn’t score a goal, and the same happened before as well, in other games. So we need to focus on finishing the games and scoring goals, So, the opponent is like, ‘OK today we have no chance for us to win this game.’ â€
Burki had to make only one challenging save, in the 83rd minute when he had to make a quick reaction to get his hand up to swat away a shot from Artur from outside the box. Most of the remaining shots were pretty much at Burki. City SC also caught one break when a header by Daniel Steres on a corner kick caught the crossbar and bounced away.
“We forced them to shoot from distance,†Carnell said. “When they got the one on goal, he made a good save at the end, a clutch moment for sure. But credit to the team that they were defensively solid.â€
Samuel Adeniran, who missed the previous two games for unspecified reasons that seem related to work rate, returned to action, coming on as a sub in the 64th minute for Rasmus Alm, though he didn’t get a shot off in those 26 minutes. Still, his return to the playing field provides one more piece to City SC’s sometime struggling attack.
Midfielder Eduard Lowen missed his seventh game with a hamstring injury, but Carnell said after the game Lowen could rejoin the team in a limited role in practice in the next few days. Though Carnell suggested Thursday that the personal issues that were keeping Lowen out haven’t gone away.
Even in savoring a solid defensive performance and his unit’s improvements, Burki couldn’t escape the one thing that seemed to be on his mind.
“The games we had, I didn’t really have a lot of saves,†he said. “Against Austin, I don’t even know if I had one save (he’s right), so we’ve definitely improved offensive wise. But once you’re not scoring goals up front, the pressure is getting bigger and bigger on the backline and on me and you know how soccer is. Things happen, you never know. They need one good action and maybe score and on the other hand, we had like three or four and we miss them. So at the end of the day, you need to be a little more focused in front of the goal.â€
City SC is back home next weekend, facing the Chicago Fire at 7:30 p.m. Saturday; City SC then faces LAFC the following Wednesday.