Here’s the difference between ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC’s 4-4 tie with Portland last week, in which the team blew a two-goal second-half lead, and Sunday’s 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Galaxy at CityPark, in which the Galaxy scored a goal in the first minute of the second half to erase a one-goal deficit before City SC got a goal from Marcel Hartel in the 68th minute that turned out to be the game winner:
“What a terrible halftime talk I must given,†said interim City SC coach John Hackworth.
“I didn’t really listen to what he said,†said goalkeeper Roman Burki.
After games like Sunday, when City SC knocked off the best team in the Western Conference to breathe a little life into the team’s desperation playoff push, the team could smile and make jokes.
In a win that was every bit encouraging as the Portland tie was discouraging, City SC did what it had to do against the Galaxy and got a result it desperately needed. City SC cut its expected goals allowed from 5.6 to 1.1, limiting the league’s third-most productive offense to one goal. It handed the Galaxy just its third loss in its past 11 games.
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City SC took a hit when it gave up a goal to start the second half and bounced back. In a rare sight this season, players were at the end playing keepaway with the Galaxy to run out the clock.
“It’s just one more step in the right direction,†said Burki.
“I don’t think it means we’re back,†Hackworth said. “We still have areas we have to improve, but at the same time, I want to celebrate this.â€
There’s still a long way to go for City SC, but winning the game that was probably the toughest on its remaining schedule is a good first step. Results elsewhere in the league on Saturday were not the best for City SC, and the team went from being 10 points out of the last playoff spot to being nine points out of the last spot. With seven games to go, City SC probably needs to win six of them to even battle for a playoff spot.
“I think we’re really coming together right now,†said Jake Nerwinski, who got a rare chance to start at right back and made the most of it. “I hope it’s not too late. I know it’s not too late yet. We’re getting results. I think you saw that in Portland now, going into that hostile environment, unfortunately, we didn’t get three points, but the fact that we were mad we didn’t get three points in Portland just kind of shows where we are. And to go out and play and beat the best team in the West right now is huge.â€
“It means so much because we are learning how to win a game that last week we didn’t know how to win,†Hackworth said. “We are doing it, and we are problem solving our way through with solutions that we talk about all week and implementing those in a game like today.â€
Key to the win was what makes talk of a playoff chase even remotely possible: City SC’s new acquisitions. Cedric Teuchert scored in the ninth minute, putting in a rebound of his own blocked shot (and surviving a wait to see if VAR would get involved), and Hartel scored in the 68th. Teuchert has four goals and one assist in seven games, and Hartel has three goals and three assists in six games with City SC across all competitions. Since those two and Simon Becher entered the lineup, the team has 14 goals in six games, its most productive run of the season.
“We brought them here because we knew their quality,†Hackworth said. “Really nice when you get two finishes like that out of players that when we were recruiting them and scouting them, we saw it again and again. ... That’s what we expect from them.â€
But it wasn’t just the new faces who played important parts in this win. Nerwinski, who has been left off the game-day roster more than he has started this season, got a rare chance to play and, three days after his wife gave birth to a daughter, Charlotte Nerwinski, made a key steal to start the play that led to the first goal. Jayden Reid, who lost his starting spot to Jannes Horn at left back, came off the bench and made the crossing pass that Hartel one-touched into the net with a flick for the winner.
“I think it’s not only me and Cedi who did a great job today or also the last weeks,†Hartel said. “I think in the end, we are a whole team, and the whole team make it easy in the end for our attackers to look good because if we don’t play from behind out and shoot only long balls, then we, our attackers, can’t play good. So in the end, we as a team make it well. So it’s a team performance.â€
Also helpful for the team’s long-term success is the return of striker Klauss and midfielder Rasmus Alm, both of who had been out since June with knee sprains. Klauss came on in the 64th minute and Alm came on in the 75th, and their minutes will only increase in the weeks ahead.
There was lots of credit all around for a tough week of practice under brutal conditions, with heat indexes over 100 most of the week. And there was also credit for the team not going into a hole after losing a lead for the fifth straight game. The Galaxy goal scored right after halftime could have broken City SC. It didn’t.
“After we give that one up, go back to the tape and watch (Hartel),†Hackworth said. “He’s shaking everyone’s hand; he’s trying to lift them up. You can see that we are trying to be a true team trying to get everybody’s backs in a moment when it would have been easy for people to put their head down, ‘Oh, it’s going to happen to us again.’ We didn’t do that. Those little things are massive.â€
Next up is another road game, at New England, and City SC still has not won on the road this season. That has to change. But the team took a big step forward on Sunday.
“We did not give up four goals,†Burki said, “even though we gave up a goal again immediately after halftime, we stayed calm. We tried to play out, not just clearing balls when we were under pressure. I think that was a big difference compared to Portland, where we were kind of panicking and just hit the balls long and away. Today, we tried to play, and I think that’s what made the difference and what made it hard for L.A. to score.â€