For Ƶ City SC, the days are getting shorter and the odds are getting longer.
After a one-month break from regular-season MLS play for the Leagues Cup, games that count in the standings resume for City SC on Saturday as the team travels to Portland, Oregon, to face the Timbers at Providence Park (9:30 p.m., free on Apple TV). Even though the team’s location in the standings — 13th out of 14 teams in the Western Conference, 10 points out of a playoff with nine games to play — has not changed, the team’s outlook has improved. An influx of new players, predominantly in the attack, have arrived, and the results in the off-Broadway test of Leagues Cup have been encouraging: two wins, a tie and a loss, with the loss coming to Club America, one of the best teams in North America.
But City SC has little margin for error. While mathematical elimination is still a ways off, practical elimination beckons. Last year, the first under the league’s new format where nine teams in each conference qualify, it took 44 in the Western Conference to make the playoffs. (It took 43 in the East.) City SC has 23 points, meaning it likely needs 21 points to be in the mix for the playoffs. That translates to seven wins in the team’s final nine games to get in.
For a team that has won four games in MLS play so far, winning seven of nine is asking a lot. Five of those nine games are on the road, where the team has won zero (as in none) this season. Things have to change, and in a big way.
Portland Timbers defender Juan David Mosquera, center, tries to hold back City SC forward Cedric Teuchert in the first half at CityPark on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024.
“We know what we have to do,” interim coach John Hackworth said, “and that’s a big task, but we want to go see if we can still get better and better.”
“I believe we will see a good number of wins in the next nine games,” said sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel.
Leagues Cup served as an in-season training camp for City SC, getting new arrivals Marcel Hartel, Cedric Teuchert and Simon Becher four games with their new teammates, all the better to hit the ground running Saturday. Each of those new attackers scored twice during Leagues Cup and the familiarity of Hartel and Teuchert with Eduard Lowen created plenty of dangerous chances.
“It was a time for us to restart and get the new players into the team,” said defender Tomas Totland, “which they definitely have. They’ve been scoring goals and helping the team massively. So in that way, it’s helped us a lot. And, yeah, we know what we have to do. It’s nine games left, and I don’t know the math, but yeah, we need to win more than half of them. So yeah, we have to start with Portland and build on that.”
When informed of the math, Totland said, “Wow. Yeah, let’s get started with the one against Portland.”
Seven out of nine is a stretch, but last season, Sporting Kansas City closed with six wins in its final nine games to get one of the last two playoff spots. City SC will have to do SKC one better.
“You have to believe it and take one game at a time,” said midfielder Rasmus Alm, who along with Klauss, Chris Durkin, Joakim Nilsson and Teuchert are listed as questionable on this week’s injury report. “I think that we have the quality to at least give it a very, very good try.”
Leagues Cup also showed that City SC can beat Portland, winning 3-1 in the round of 32 after a 0-0 in June in CityPark. Portland star midfielder Evander got hurt in the Leagues Cup meeting and Timbers coach Phil Neville said he would at best see second-half minutes.
So in a season where not a whole lot has gone right, there is cause for some semblance of optimism within the club based on current events.
“We feel (it’s a good springboard),” Hackworth said. “That doesn’t mean diddly come Saturday night. We have to beat a team for the second time in a row, and I’m sure that they have done all of their homework on how they’re going to try to beat us, and we’re doing the same. So big challenge, but one that I think we’re ready for.”
The forwards may have gotten some acclimation time, but there wasn’t enough time to get every piece together in Leagues Cup. Center back Henry Kessler was with the team in training but was ineligible to play because he had appeared in a game in the tournament with his previous team, New England. Left back Jannes Horn suited up for the Club America game, but hasn’t played since the end of his Germany season in May.
“I think they’re integrating really well so far,” Hackworth said. “We want to get through this week of training, which they’re involved in, competing for a spot. But I don’t have anything negative to say about either one of them, because they come out and they play hard. They’re honest about trying to be good players in all the right ways. So nice to have them. It’s going to make for some tough coaching decisions.
“You have guys that haven’t even played for us yet, so until they play for us and perform and get the results that we obviously desire, we can’t really talk about it. I mean, I did feel like when we got to the Portland game (in Leagues Cup), it was the first time that we had 11 guys starting that were literally ready. There was no thought that I was pulling somebody off at 70 minutes or anything. That group was ready to go. So now we try to integrate a few more guys into that.”
