ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC and the New England Revolution came into their game Saturday night facing uphill battles to make the Major League Soccer playoffs, and the hill was going to get steeper for the losing team.
It didn’t work out for either team as the game ended in a 2-2 tie at Gillette Stadium. City SC moved up to eight points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, but the team it’s chasing, Minnesota, is off this weekend. So while City SC has six games to play, Minnesota has seven. The tie also kept City SC winless on the road this season, with six losses and eight ties. City SC has three road games left to avoid becoming the 11th team in league history to go a full season without winning on the road.
City SC, which has a four-game unbeaten streak in MLS play, now is in a situation in which it needs to win all of its remaining six games and get some help from other teams if it is to make the playoffs
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Henry Kessler, acquired from New England on Aug. 2 in a trade for Tim Parker, scored for City SC to put it ahead and then Simon Becher, another of the team’s summer transfer window acquisitions, scored in the 73rd minute to tie it.
Becher’s goal came in a heavy rain and a deluge of chances by City SC, that began after Klauss came on as a sub in the 57th minute for left back Jannes Horn and the team went to a three-man backline and an two strikers in Becher and Klauss. From there, New England goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic was tested again and again making a couple diving saves on dangerous chances. For the game, he made nine saves. On the goal, Becher took a pass from Marcel Hartel near the penalty spot and one-timed it in for his fourth goal in all competitions since joining the team.
It looked as if City SC was in trouble when referee Tim Ford was summoned to the monitor by the VAR official in the 81st minute to look at a ball that hit Kyle Hiebert in the right arm as he defended a play in the box. Ford had let the play go in real time, but most of the time when this happens, the call is overturned. But after going to the monitor, Ford said that Hiebert’s arm was in a “justifiable position†and ruled no hand ball.
Kessler put City SC ahead 1-0 in the 23rd minute when he headed in a corner from Marcel Hartel, stepping back to get free and heading the ball high in the air and over the outstretched arm of New England goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic.
The lead did not last long. For the fourth time the past six games, City SC allowed a goal five minutes or less after scoring itself. Kessler, who said earlier in the week that the Gillette Stadium artificial turf could be tricky, slipped, allowing New England’s Luca Langoni to get around him and come in alone on Roman Burki, who came out to challenge Langoni but had the Revs’ highest-priced player put it in between his legs and in to tie the game.
New England kept making runs down its left side, and almost scored in the 39th minute when Dylan Borrero took a cross at the top of the box but put his shot off the right post and it bounced away. In the 40th minute, New England made another run down the left, eventually getting the ball to Carles Gil at the top of the box. That’s where his shot looked to be going wide but caught the left post and bounced in to make it 2-1.
Encore performance
Interim City SC coach John Hackworth went with the same starting lineup — and the same nine players on the bench — as he used in the Galaxy game. It’s the second time in a few weeks Hackworth has done that. He used the same starting 11 against Club America that he used for the 3-1 win over Portland that preceded it.
Parker made his debut with the Revs in the game. He was on bench but didn’t get in during New England’s first two games after the Leagues Cup.
The mask comes off
Indiana Vassilev, who has been playing with a mask to protect his nose since breaking it in the Seattle game on July 17, went without it on Saturday.
“I’m done with it,†he said. “It kind of inhibits my vision, if that’s the right word. So if I can play without it, I’ll play without it.â€
Vassilev came out at the half after limping off the field favoring his left leg in first half stoppage time. He came back on the field before the half ended, but that was it for his night. Nokkvi Thorisson, who had lost his spot in the starting lineup to Vassilev for the Galaxy game, came on.