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Just about everyone around CityPark calls ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC midfielder Aziel Jackson “AZ,â€� and he played last season with his last name, Jackson, on the back of his jersey.

But for this season, Jackson went with his first name, Aziel, instead of Jackson on the back.

“Aziel is my first name,� he said. “It means God is my strength and I want to be known as Aziel. I would like to be called AZ, but a lot of people don’t know how to pronounce Aziel (it’s Ay-zee-el, as if you were just saying the letters A-Z-L.). They say Uh-zeal, or Az-ee-el. They pronounce it wrong all the time. I just want people to know who Aziel is. Jackson is my family name but I have my own story that I want people to know about and I want Aziel on my back.�

He has come a long way over the past two seasons, first getting City SC’s attention while playing in MLS Next Pro for Minnesota and after a slow start last season became a regular in City SC’s starting lineup and made an appearance with the U.S. national team in its January camp. He started the first seven Major League Soccer games for City SC, though the past three have been off the bench as Rasmus Alm has moved into the lineup after recovering from his sports hernia surgery.

Jackson came off the bench at halftime Saturday against Houston to replace Celio Pompeu, the most playing time he has gotten in his past three games. City SC has a lot of options in the midfield, and it will only get more crowded when Njabulo Blom and Eduard Lowen return from injuries.

“We have a group of hungry guys that want minutes,� City SC coach Bradley Carnell said after Saturday’s tie in Houston. “So when we just feel something is a slight change, a slight moment that we’re looking for that either we can get in a defensive balance stability or we can gain an attacking threat, these are the moments we’ll go through on the bench and that’s a decision we’ve made. We have a group of hungry guys here and we’re just managing everybody on the roster and getting them good minutes.�

Now, Jackson is fighting to get back in the starting lineup. He’s likely to get a start sometime soon as City SC enters a stretch of three games in eight days starting with Saturday against Chicago. He has no goals and one assist through 10 games after having one goal and four assists in 25 games last season.

“I think it just comes with just being patient and doing what I have to do,� he said, “just being patient with the opportunities that I get and take advantage of them. I think that’s what I’ve got to focus on for myself. It’s just what I need to do for myself and the team. … I think it’s just feeds my mentality more, even if I’m starting or not starting or just coming off the bench for 45, 20, 30 minutes, I want to give all for the team any way possible and make a difference.�

Lowen, Blom rejoin practice

Midfielders Eduard Lowen and Njabulo Blom rejoined the full squad in practice Tuesday, a significant step on the road to getting back in the lineup. Blom hasn’t played since April 6, and Lowen last played March 9. Both have been out with hamstring injuries, though Lowen has also been away from the team at times because of a family emergency.

Given the time they’ve missed, it will likely take more than a week of practice to get them into game shape.

“We’ll have to see how they progress through the week,� Carnell said. “We just have to evaluate. They’ve been out for quite some time. So I’m not putting any hopes, I’m not putting any pressure. We just have to see how they handle the load this week.�

Defender Josh Yaro has moved to the next stage of his rehab, working separately with a trainer on the field before practice.

Practice tests

Goalkeeper Roman Burki talked after the Houston game about the team’s strikers needing more confidence with the ball. He was jokingly asked if he could help that confidence by letting some shots go in during practice. That’s not going to happen.

“I could, but that’s not how I am,� he said. “I try to challenge my guys and my friends. It’s not just letting goals in because I want confidence too. I need confidence too. And I always say, I’m the first guy who says, that the way you train, that’s the way you’re going to play. That’s the way you’re going to be in the field and if they can score a lot of goals in training. I’m very happy that they do that because I’m trying my best to save them. The backline is trying everything to defend it and so should that attacking side be very hungry to score these goals.�

Burki’s 10 saves Saturday earned him the starting goalkeeper spot on the league’s team of the matchday.

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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.�

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.�

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.�

“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.�

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.’ �

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.�

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.�

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.

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After a weekend off and a chance to catch their breath, ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC still is trapped in a run of ties.

City SC played its seventh tie in 10 games this season, this time in a 0-0 tie with the Houston Dynamo on the road. Road ties are preferable to road losses, and this is the fourth road tie of the season for City SC in five road games. It was City SC's third shutout in its past four games, but two of them have been part of 0-0 ties. It was the fourth shutout of the season for Roman Burki, who made a season high 10 saves, and City SC.

At some point, City SC is going to have to start winning games if it’s going to move up in the Western Conference standings. City SC is unbeaten in its past four games, but has a win and three ties in that run. City SC has lost just one game, one of only two teams left in MLS with just one loss, but sits in ninth in the Western Conference.

Had City SC had this result in their previous trip to Shell Energy Stadium this season, in the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, it would have advanced it to the round of 16 of that tournament. This time, it got the team another point.

Even though Houston had a big edge in possession, it was City SC that did more with the ball when it had it. It was a throwback game for Klauss, who after scoring in the previous two games failed to finish a couple of good setups. Samuel Adeniran came on as a substitute in the 64th minute, his first appearance since April 6 after being left off the game roster the previous two games.

Burki had to make an acrobatic save on a shot from outside in the 83rd minute on what was Houston’s best chance of the night.

For Klauss, his most frustrating miss of the night came in the 56th minute, when Tomas Ostrak fed him the ball on a break in the box but he may have slipped as he ended up on his back and shot the ball well over the bar.

For the third time in the past four games, City SC couldn’t score in the first half, and it was also the third time in the past four games City SC hadn’t allowed a goal in the first half. City SC’s best chance came in the 25th minute when Tomas Totland took a pass from Klauss and was free on the right wing in the box but put his shot straight to goalkeeper Steve Clark.

Houston’s best chance came closer. Off a Houston corner kick in the 44th minute, Daniel Steres headed the ball on goal and struck the cross bar, with the ball bouncing away and Houston putting the rebound well off target. Burki had to make four saves in the first half, four more than he had to make in the previous two games combined.

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One thing ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC is never missing when Rasmus Alm is on the field: Energy.

“He’s very energetic,� said midfielder Celio Pompeu, “and we see that from him, and we grab his energy from him and it’s good for us. It helps the whole team when he’s on the field.�

“He just runs, and he doesn’t stop running,� left back Anthony Markanich said. “His running makes me want to run more.�

The challenge has just been to get Alm on the field amid a string of injuries. In City SC’s first season, he played in 21 out of 34 MLS games. This season he’s missed four of the team’s 11 games in all competitions and it wasn’t until a month ago he was fit enough to be in the starting lineup after offseason surgery for a sports hernia.

But now he’s back and the importance of that can’t be stressed enough. City SC is 8-3-3 when Alm is in the starting lineup, 14-7-7 when he gets in the game. The team lost only one of Alm’s first 10 games with the club. He should be in the lineup Saturday when City SC resumes MLS play on the road against Houston (7:30 p.m., free on Season Pass on Apple TV).

“I just think it’s intensity,� City SC coach Bradley Carnell said. “I think he only knows one way. And for him just to play with full gas for that time that he is on the field, whether it’s 90 minutes, whether it’s 60, whether it’s 70, whatever his body is allowing him to do and however the nature of the game is, it’s impressive when he’s on the field with what he does for us.�

The key is Alm is now healthy. He missed two games last season with a knee injury, came back and played three games before suffering an abdominal injury that kept him out for a month and left him playing in pain for the rest of the season, before he finally stopped playing in August. After first thinking rest was what he needed, when the season ended he had surgery to fix what was relabeled a sports hernia.

“Body wise, today I have no pain so I’m happy,� Alm said. “I feel better every day that goes on. Sometimes in games I get fatigued and tired, but I’m too honest with myself. I can’t cheat. I will run anyways. But yeah, I feel better.�

And does he ever run. City SC tracks all sorts of data in games and practices and when it comes to energy exerted, Alm is at or near the top of them all: Highest speed repetitions, high metabolic load distance, how often a player hits 7 meters per second (about 15 mph) in a game. And it’s not that he’s just running around. His rate of .76 goal-creating actions per 90 minutes would be in the top 20 in the league if he had enough minutes to qualify, which he should after this week.

“He’s certainly a guy that I can relate to and a guy that I look at and just appreciate,� said midfielder Chris Durkin, another player consistently high in the work rate numbers and who covers more distance than anyone on the team, about eight miles per game. “He does a lot of work for us. A lot of selfless running, and it’s so crucial for our system to have a guy like that. He creates so many spaces, so many chances, and he pushes the guys around him. I think now that he’s getting more and more close to 90 minutes fit, I think we’ll continue to see even more from him. I think being out for so long has been tough for him and he’s wanted to be a part of the group for so long now. He’s a fantastic guy and does so much for us on the pitch that we were really lucky to have him.�

“I think I’ve always been like this,� Alm said. “Maybe not youth teams, and my first club in Sweden maybe was a little bit more possession team. So then it was maybe not like this, but I’m enjoying playing this way. I think it’s fun to play with this intensity and I think that has become a part of me. So now I don’t even think when I play I just do what I feel comfortable with.

“I’ve always tried to always put into work because I don’t want to lose the game because I didn’t do the work that we have to put in. So I think that’s the mentality I’ve had. If the opponents are going to beat us then they have to have a really good day.�

There’s finesse too. Alm picked up his second assist of the season in City SC’s game against Sporting Kansas City on April 20, though it didn’t work out the way he wanted. He made a daring and brilliant pass to Klauss that went through three SKC defenders for Klauss to put it in.

Actually, it had been a pass intended for Pompeu, who was making a run at the goal but then pulled off. Alm was standing there with arms outstretched, wondering why Pompeu had stopped, when the ball found Klauss for the goal.

“Sometimes when you put the ball in dangerous areas, something can happen,� Alm said. “I saw Celio was making a run but then he stopped so I was a bit angry at him. Then Klauss came behind him, so it was perfect. I wish it was to Klauss, but I have to be honest, it wasn’t.�

All that running takes its toll. Alm has gone a full 90 minutes just once with City SC, and just once in his final two seasons in Sweden. But however long Alm is on the field, he’s going to go all out. He does not believe in pacing himself.

“For me, it’s just all out as long as I can,� he said, “and then we’ll see how the game goes.�

Back to work for City SC

After a week without a game, City SC returns to action to face Houston for the third time this season. The teams met twice at the start of the season in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, with City SC winning 2-1 at home and losing 1-0 in Houston.

Durkin will be a game-time decision, according to Carnell, after the midfielder got a knock on his knee during the team’s scrimmage with City2 last Saturday. Durkin said Thursday he was “optimistic� he could play. “It’s just a conversation you have with the physio, doctors, coaches, on what makes sense,� he said.

Njabulo Blom, Eduard Lowen and Josh Yaro are all still out with injuries. None have progressed to the point where they are practicing with the team yet. Samuel Adeniran, left off the roster for the previous two games, practiced with the team all week and is available.

Houston has lost three of its past four games while City SC has just one win in its past seven games, with five ties. Houston will be without defender Griffin Dorsey, who got a red card in his last game. Three City SC players, Durkin, Tim Parker and Tomas Totland have four yellow cards and face a one-game suspension if they get a fifth.

“Coming into the game against Kansas,� Durkin said, “I was a bit worried with four yellows. I knew it was going to be a very physical game and I was happy to get out of that game with no yellow, but going five games without a yellow to get one taken away, it’s a tough ask. But I’ll certainly try my best. I think it’s just how I can eliminate the stupid yellow cards. That’s my main job.�

Toward getting one yellow subtracted for going five games without one, Totland has gone two games, Durkin one and Parker none.

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