When you’ve tied as many games as City SC has this season, every win looks beautiful.
So never mind that the Chicago Fire may be one of the worst teams in Major League Soccer this season. A big part of any season is just taking care of business, and City SC did that on Saturday night, beating Chicago 3-1 in front of a sellout crowd at CityPark, where City SC is unbeaten in six games this season. City SC was pretty much in control throughout, taking the lead just 84 seconds in, though needing a pair of second-half goals from Klauss to get the three points.
“I think this win is very important for us,†Klauss said.
“You look at the table right now,†said midfielder Chris Durkin, “we’re still trying to stick with everybody else. It’s really tight right now. So we really needed that win.â€
“It’s huge,†said midfielder Rasmus Alm.
People are also reading…
It was huge for several reasons. The game was the first of a run of three games in eight days, with the next two — at home against Los Angeles FC on Wednesday and on the road against Cincinnati on Saturday — against two of the top teams in Major League Soccer. While City SC came in unbeaten in four games, it had been shut out in two of them and played to ties in three of them, so as unbeaten streaks go, it wasn’t the most impressive.
While City SC is now the only team in the league with just one loss, the ties made for slow progress and kept City SC in the bottom half of the Western Conference standings. So a win was a big deal.
“I wish we could play tomorrow,†City SC coach Bradley Carnell said. “I feel really great.â€
It was also a commanding win, with City SC limiting Chicago’s chances while creating plenty of its own. (Though Chicago still had the edge in expected goals, 2.4 to 2.2.)
“I think we dominated the game from the first minute,†Klauss said. “Unfortunately, we allowed a very early goal in the second half, but this showed the mentality of this team. We just kept going, and this was a very good game from us. ... One of our best performances this year. It was a great first step for the week.â€
Alm’s goal 1:24 into the game, the quickest in City SC history and his first of the season, set the tone. Alm ran on to a header of a failed Chicago clearance, had some room to come in on goalkeeper Chris Brady, who was off his line, and from about 25 yards put a shot over Brady and under the crossbar for the goal. It was just his fifth shot of the season for Alm and his second on goal, but Carnell had told the team before the game to be brave and shoot.
“I’m glad he took on the game plan,†Carnell said.
“We talked about it before the game, and it worked out,†Alm said, “but then I had the same situation some minutes later, and it didn’t work out. The first shot, I felt like I was more calm, and then the second one, I got too excited to get one more chance.â€
City SC couldn’t expand the lead in the first half, though it had chances, and then had a mental lapse at the start of the second half to allow Chicago to tie the game 49 seconds in.
“I think that’s just a little bit bad from the whole team,†Alm said. “Everybody’s late, and then it falls into a domino effect. It’s unlucky they scored the goal, but I think we controlled the rest of the game.â€
City got those final goals thanks to Klauss, who ran his season total to five goals — all in the past seven games, with four of them in the past four games. On Saturday, he got two goals in 11 minutes to get the win.
His first one was made possible by Celio Pompeu, who got the ball on a quick restart from Anthony Markanich, dribbled into the box while having his jersey tugged on by Chicago’s Allan Arigoni. Pompeu stopped the ball just short of going over the end line, even though his momentum carried him out of play. But he stopped, recovered the ball and passed it through four Chicago defenders to find Klauss, who had a little room because of a run by Alm and put it in with his shin. As Klauss celebrated the goal, he pointed repeatedly at Pompeu.
“It was great,†Klauss said of the pass. “I think Celio did everything. I just put the ball in. ... I have been telling him for two or three weeks how I gave him the assist versus Kansas City and that it was now his turn to assist me.â€
“We have this chemistry; we have this friendship,†said Pompeu, who like Klauss is from Brazil. “I love him. He’s my guy. I just want to keep building so we can have more goals. And we talk Portuguese, so it makes it easier.â€
Eleven minutes later, it was Durkin’s turn to assist Klauss, sending a cross into the box that found an open Klauss to head in from close range. It was the third time Klauss has scored two goals in a game for City SC.
“We see Klauss day in and day out and the way he trains and the way he puts in effort and the way he applies the game plan,†Carnell said. “Good from him, and the cherry on top is getting rewarded for all the hard work. I’m glad it’s starting to fall his way a little bit. He’s due a couple of goals, and I’m glad he’s starting to take those.â€
The success Klauss had didn’t change his feelings about the new field.
“I didn’t say the field was bad,†he said. “I just said the field wasn’t ready, and that’s my opinion. I still think the field is not ready yet. When you put a new grass, you need a few weeks to fit. It’s still a little bit sticky and slow. You could see there was a lot of water on the field today to speed up the field, so the field is a little bit heavy.â€
Njabulo back, Lowen still out
City SC had Njabulo Blom back on the bench after he missed the previous three games, but the other midfielder almost done with his rehab, Eduard Lowen, wasn’t. Asked about when Lowen would be available to play, Carnell said that Lowen would probably make a statement “next week.â€
“He wants to publicly address you guys,†he told reporters, “and when he addresses you guys, that will be a time that he’s available.â€
The team’s pregame availability for the LAFC game will be on Monday, so that would be the earliest chance. It’s always been a two-pronged process on Lowen’s return, combining when his injured hamstring felt good enough to go and when his family medical issue had cleared enough for him to feel ready to play. In practice, it’s looked increasingly as though he’s fit to go, so the personal part appears to be the driving force at this time.