City SC brought down the curtain on the California section of its preseason training with a 2-2 tie with the New York Red Bulls that almost was a win at the Coachella Valley Invitational at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.
Njabulo Blom and Nokkvi Thorisson scored, but City SC paid the price for some defensive sloppiness at times, which is one of those things training camp is there for. City SC finished with two wins and two ties in its preseason games against MLS opponents, with one more exhibition game to come — a closed-door game Thursday at CityPark against Louisville City of the USL Championship. The team plays its first real game of the season Feb. 20 in the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
The preseason results, of course, don’t matter, but coach Bradley Carnell felt the camp did a good job of getting the team ready for the start of the season, which is fast approaching.
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“We know we played a version of ourselves,†Carnell said after the game, “and that was pretty evident for 90 minutes. Good learning moments for us because we tried to be brave in certain moments and it shows we can get called out in a few moments if we’re not that clean or we’re not making the right decision. So it was a hell of a good exercise to go through these moments. Some excellent moments of creativity, some good pressure, some good interplay, some really good against the ball moments. Our pressing was very good for the most part. But there’s also some learning, especially against a team that’s coming at you quick. We take this one and we move on.
“The intensity levels just had to be on point every single game, so this one was a couple of percent on top of what we’ve had in the last couple of weeks. We’re going in the right direction in terms of opponent, in terms of where we want to go. Now we get to decompress a little and get everyone recharged. Today was a very physical battle.â€
Blom put City SC ahead in the 16th minute, though he didn’t really mean to. He took a throw-in from Tomas Totland near the sideline and lobbed an innocuous ball into the box, with no teammates in the vicinity. NYRB goalkeeper Ryan Meara, however, lost the ball in the sun, and it hit him on the way down and bounced into the net.
Some awkward defense kept City SC from clearing the ball from the top of its box, which led to the Red Bulls tying the game in the 49th minute. After subbing third-string goalie Christian Olivares in for Roman Burki at the half, Carnell subbed the other 10 players in the 63rd minute, giving each set of players about 90 minutes of playing time over the two preseason games at Coachella.
Third-round draft pick Brendan McSorley continued his strong camp with a breakaway he couldn’t finish but did earn City SC a penalty kick, which Thorisson converted in the 75th minute. It’s the second goal for Thorisson in the preseason.
City SC almost came away with the win, but in the 90th minute Olivares tried to play the ball forward to Anthony Markanich, but the pass was neither strong enough nor on target. It was stolen by the Red Bulls and Markanich was called for a foul in the box trying to break up the play. The ensuing PK tied the game.
For Totland, Super Bowl is a mystery
City SC has many players who haven’t been in America all that long. But some, such as goalkeeper Roman Burki, are big into the NFL. Others, such as newly acquired defender Tomas Totland, have no idea what’s going on.
“To be honest, I’ve never watched a football game before,†he said. “I’ve just started to ask people like what are the rules? Why do people like it so much? But I want to know so I’m going to go and watch the Super Bowl on Sunday.
“All I see is a guy throwing the ball. I want to know the rules of it.â€
Carnell has been in America longer than any of his foreign players but has never paid much attention to it
“I care because my players care,†he said. “They care a lot about the Super Bowl. So I’m not too tuned in to what’s going on.â€
He said that growing up in South Africa, his interest in the game was mostly on the spectacle of it.
“I used to wake up in South Africa, when I was a youngster, watching the Super Bowl halftime show,†he said. “That was very interesting for me growing up, watching the halftime show. It was like 4 a.m. my time in South Africa or something. Yeah, that was fun, but I didn’t put too much stock into the game. But yeah, there’s a lot of fever right now in camp.â€