Ties have become so pervasive for ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC this season that even when it shuts out the other team, it still can’t win the game.
City SC’s defense could not have done any better — at least on the scoreboard — but its offense could have. City SC posted its second shutout of the season on a chilly Saturday night at a sold-out CityPark, but that wasn’t enough for it to beat FC Dallas. The final score was 0-0 as City SC played its fifth tie in seven games, matching its total for all of last season. City SC was able to snap a run of four games in which it allowed two goals or more but now has a five-game winless streak, with four ties and a loss.
“After the last few weeks, yes, definitely feels good to have a clean sheet,†goalkeeper Roman Burki said. “ But on the other side, we should have definitely won that game.â€
How Dallas got its zero was simple: Burki had another one of those games in which he makes great saves at just the right moment. (He also got some help from a world-class miss from a few feet out by Dante Sealy of Dallas.) How City SC got its zero was not quite so simple: Despite dominating the game in every way, shape and form offensively, City SC couldn’t score, and after a while, it just seemed like the team was doomed, whether it was the shot by Klauss that went off the bar in the 67th minute or the shot by Samuel Adeniran that grazed the post in the first minute of second-half stoppage time.
City SC took a club-record 23 shots, and none of them went in. City SC had the ball for 64.9% of the game, more than it has had in any other game this season or last when the opponent didn’t get a red card. Its 23 crosses were the second-most the club has had in a game, but those, along with the team’s nine corner kicks, produced nothing.
“We definitely have to get back to being a team that is hard to beat,†said Burki. “We weren’t that team today. We weren’t a team. We were dominating the game 100%. We had more from the game sometimes. We had a lot of phases where we put them under pressure. But to be a really good team, we have to win games. We have to be crucial in front of the goal. And we have to decide sometimes the games earlier because we have the chances to, and if you don’t do that, the other team is still smelling a little bit of hope or having a little bit hope and tries to try so use that.
“We have to try to be a team that is hard to beat and not give up a lot of chances. Even today, in my opinion, we were clearly the better team, but we could lose that game. We should work on being a team that is difficult to play like we were last year. Last year I think nobody wanted to come here. At the moment, now everybody sees that we are struggling a little bit, so we have to find a way back to being that team again that is hard to play.â€
Despite having 23 shots, only six of City SC’s shots were on goal, and for all those balls City SC put into the box on crosses and corners, Dallas was credited with 40 clearances. That’s the most ever for a City SC opponent. The ball was going into the box and in many cases coming right out.
“I think we have to be a little bit calm,†said midfielder Tomas Ostrak, who had six of those 23 shots. “And you know, like, just believe it’s going to come and it’s going to, you find the next pass and just be prepared and mentally focused for the next action. I think this is the point.â€
“Yeah, of course it’s frustrating,†said midfielder Rasmus Alm, who made his first start of the season and subbed out at halftime. “But I also see the other side of it that we create a lot of chances, and that’s a good sign. And yeah, I think if we score one this game, we might score more. Like some games are like that, before you score then everything opens up, but today unfortunately we couldn’t get one in. But I think it’s a positive sign that we created a lot of chances.â€
That was what City SC coach Bradley Carnell kept coming back to: Any team that creates that many chances is going to win games sooner or later. It just hasn’t happened yet in City SC’s case.
“I’d be posing a lot more questions if we weren’t getting into these dangerous areas,†Carnell said. “Eventually it will come. ... We’ll continue to be us and we’ll continue to develop and evolve and control these types of games, and yeah, we just need to now get that one over the line or take that last jump over the hurdle to get the three points.â€
The main focus for that is Klauss, who was tied for the team lead in goals last season with 10 but who has just one, on a penalty kick, so far this season. He took six shots on Saturday, two of which were on target, but couldn’t score. He’s taken 16 shots in the past four games, with the PK the only ball to go in.
Shutouts often are a reflection on team defense rather than the goalkeeper, but not in City SC’s case. Burki denied Dallas’ Sebastian Lletget in the 59th minute, raising his hand to knock away a shot from close range and then a minute later off the ensuing corner kick reached out his right hand to swat away a ball headed for the net.
“I think the first one was just a reflex,†he said. “I don’t really think about it in these moments, and I just look at what happens and somehow the ball hits me. It’s similar to the save I had against Galaxy. It’s like you just do it. You don’t even know that you’re going to do that, I just do it. On the other save, luckily once I stopped watching the ball from the corner, I picked the right player that is going to hit the ball because sometimes you look where the ball could go and pick which player is ready to hit the ball and I just followed through the ball and in my action. So it was definitely a little bit luck involved, but I’ll take that.â€
“He’s on a different level, he’s way too good,†Alm said. “We’re happy that we have him and he saved us tonight as well.â€
City SC had plenty of chances but no goals against Dallas last week, and the need to get the ball over the goal line has been a focus this weekÂ
City SC forward Klauss, second from left, reacts to missing a shot at FC Dallas goalkeeper Maarten Paes, right, in the first half of a game on Saturday, April 6, 2024, at CityPark.