A year ago, ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC scored three goals in second-half stoppage time, after the game had passed the 90-minute mark.
The goals were largely incidental: a 93rd-minute goal by Miguel Perez that made the final score of City SC’s Open Cup loss to Chicago 2-1; a 94th-minute goal by Perez against Vancouver that secured a 3-1 win; and a 95th-minute goal by Samuel Adeniran against Austin in a 6-3 win.
This season, City SC has scored three goals after the 90th minute, and all of them have changed the outcome of the game: Hosei Kijima’s goal in the 91st minute in the CONCACAF Champions Cup gave City SC a 2-1 win; a goal by Celio Pompeu in the 93rd minute against Austin got City SC a 2-2 tie; and Tomas Totland’s 92nd-minute goal against Sporting Kansas City on Saturday earned City SC a 3-3 tie.
That’s two points saved by City SC in the closing minutes, plus the Champions Cup goal that improved their position in a total-goals series but not enough.
“I think we just never stopped fighting, we never gave up,†said Pompeu after the Sporting Kansas City game. “That’s what I love about this team. We don’t quit. We always keep going. We can be losing, but we never put our heads down. We always keep fighting, and that’s what happened.â€
“Credit to the boys for not giving up,†Carnell said, “and it’s something that this team continues to show — a never-say-die attitude.â€
City SC has allowed only two goals after the 90th minute, both on the road, and only one has changed the outcome of the game. It allowed one goal against the Los Angeles Galaxy in the 95th minute to turn a potential City SC win into a tie and another by Real Salt Lake turned a one-goal loss by City SC into a two-goal loss. So because Houston’s goal didn’t earn it any points because it wasn’t in MLS play, that’s two points lost to late goals, leaving the team even for the season.
A breather
With no game this weekend for City SC, Carnell let the team off until Wednesday. Normally, the team would have done regeneration work Sunday and practiced on Tuesday. This is the first weekend off for the team since the season began Feb. 20.
“We have to keep working on the things that we have to get better,†Klauss said. “I think we have to use this time, now the first days to rest because the beginning of the season was really tough with CONCACAF and MLS starting at the same time. So use the first days to rest to calm down a little bit. And then the next week used to get better physically, mentally and also the things that we have to improve.â€
“A game like (Sporting KC) takes up a lot of energy,†Carnell said after the game. “It takes up a lot of physical and mental energy. So yeah, we’re going to get the guys out of town for a few days who wants to go out of town for two to three days, and we’ll be back on Wednesday.â€
With City2 also off this weekend, the teams will scrimmage on Saturday, then City will get back on a normal practice schedule for the game at Houston on May 4.
Anything for you
A week after scoring a goal after promising his wife he would score on her birthday, Klauss had a goal and an assist on Saturday vs. Kansas City, but there were no promises this time.
“I didn’t,†he said. “I cannot promise her every week, but every week, she asked me to score a goal for her.â€
Every week?
“Yeah, every week,†he said. “So maybe I got one week free then. Just kidding. I don’t want that week free. I want to keep scoring and helping my teammates.â€
Notes
- Tomas Totland’s goal earned him a spot on the MLS team of the matchday, and Klauss made the bench, a week after making the first XI.
- Tim Parker got a yellow card against SKC, giving him four on the season. That makes three City SC players — Parker, Totland and Chris Durkin — who have four yellow cards and would get a one-game suspension with their fifth. Players get a yellow card removed from their total if they go five games without another. Totland has gone two games, and Durkin one toward that.
- City2 has signed defender Oscar Benitez to a Next Pro contract for the remainder of the season. Benitez is from Colombia but spent his youth career in Brazil with RB Bragantino II. He turns 20 in June.
Since losing its opening game, City2 has gone undefeated in its past five games, with two regulation wins and three ties to move into first place in the Western Conference of MLS Next Pro.