There were some noteworthy things that happened for 狐狸视频 City SC on Saturday, with some definite long-term ramifications for the team and its players.
Klauss got in a game for the first time in four months. Joakim Nilsson made his first start in 15 months. Anthony Markanich made his debut with 狐狸视频 City SC and set up a goal. Tim Parker became a father.
Video review, which had given City SC a goal not long before, gave a penalty kick in second half stoppage time that sent City SC to a 2-1 loss in Orlando, Florida. The setback started a run of three games in eight days, continuing with a game Wednesday at CityPark against FC Dallas, which is seven points back in the Western Conference.
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鈥淲e take the good with some of the gray moments, and we look forward to Wednesday,鈥 City SC coach Bradley Carnell said.
鈥淚t was not a bad performance,鈥 said Nilsson, who came out in the 72nd minute, as scheduled. 鈥淚t was a tight game, and it could have been either way.鈥
In the biggest picture, not a whole lot changed. The top three teams in the MLS Western Conference, City SC, LAFC and all lost, so the top of the standings remained unchanged. (The fourth-place team, Seattle, plays on Sunday.) City SC leads the conference by four points over and seven over RSL with nine games to go in the regular season.
But there was potentially some bad news. Just as City SC got back to full health with the appearances of Klauss and Nilsson in the past two games, Nicholas Gioacchini left the game at halftime with a shoulder injury suffered when he was fouled late in the first half. Carnell said Gioacchini had hurt his right shoulder in practice this week and aggravated it when he was fouled near midfield. He finished the half trying to move his right arm as little as possible. Carnell didn鈥檛 know much immediately after the game.
鈥淲e鈥檒l have to monitor his shoulder,鈥 Carnell said.
City SC was looking forward to reuniting Klauss and Gioacchini, who had been an effective combination in the first nine games prior to Klauss鈥 quad injury, but now, that鈥檚 in doubt. Fortunately for City SC, it has plenty of depth up front, as evidenced by the fact Rasmus Alm, Jared Stroud and Tomas Ostrak all started the game on the bench, and there wasn鈥檛 room for Celio Pompeu on the game-day roster.
Klauss came into the game in the 78th minute as City SC works to get his minutes up again. He didn鈥檛 touch the ball a whole lot in the limited time he was in, but it鈥檚 a start for the player who was leading the team in goals when he got hurt; and it may matter even more if Gioacchini, the team鈥檚 leading scorer now with 10 goals, misses some time.
鈥淔or sure, there鈥檚 going to be a bit of rust,鈥 Carnell said, 鈥渂ut you can see the holdup play, you can see the movement, you can see he commands a lot of respect from the opposition center backs, I told Klauss before the game that these minutes that he will get, to use them like Edu (Lowen) did coming back from his injury, like Joakim did when we were playing with City2, and use those minutes wisely.鈥
鈥淭hat gives us all energy,鈥 Nilsson said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e very happy for him. I don鈥檛 think we鈥檝e had everyone fit in until now. So that is good for the group. We鈥檙e gonna get even more competitive during trainings, and that is good for the group. Really happy to have him back. I mean, we鈥檝e been in the gym a lot together.鈥
Before the game started, City SC got some good news that vice captain Tim Parker and his wife Kelsey had become parents of a healthy boy, Rory Ryan Parker. Parker stayed behind on the trip to be on hand for the birth of the family鈥檚 first child.
Parker had three goals in five MLS games coming into the match, and even if scoring isn鈥檛 his main responsibility, City SC could have used a hand with its offense. City SC had 10 shots, but only two were on goal and many of them were from outside and missed by a good distance. The team鈥檚 expected goals total was 0.7, and most of that came from its one goal. But Carnell wasn鈥檛 expecting a repeat of last week鈥檚 6-3 victory against Austin.
鈥淲e knew this was going to be a tight game,鈥 Carnell said. 鈥淲e say, yeah, 6-3, we鈥檇 like to be a little bit tighter at the back, so then we鈥檙e tighter at the back and then we鈥檙e talking about no chances created. So, we know we have to pick our poison playing on the road. We have to know what we鈥檙e coming up against, and we have to know that chances are going to be limited here in the stadium. ... I thought the game was a lot tighter. I thought our defensive structure was a lot more intact, and I saw a lot of good things. So the moments we do get now, can we be a little bit more clinical with those moments?鈥
City SC fell behind three minutes into the second half on a goal by , and there鈥檚 a definite difference in how City SC does when it gives up the first goal to when it scores the first goal. But City SC got even.
Markanich, who City SC acquired in a trade with Colorado during the transfer window, needed just seven minutes to get involved in a goal, though he didn鈥檛 get credit for an assist. Markanich chased a ball down at the end line and crossed it to Alm at the near post, who knocked it in. (The ball appeared to touch an Orlando defender before it got to Alm, which would negate the assist.) But the assistant referee at that end of the field ruled that the ball had gone over the end line and was out of bounds, wiping out the goal.
Video review showed the entire ball had not gone over the line, which meant it was still in play. It took a few minutes, but referee Joe Dickerson looked at the monitor and gave City SC the goal and the game was tied.
The goal also gave City SC a little bit of history as it became the first expansion team to score 50 goals in its first 25 games, and City SC is just the fifth team since 2002 to score 50 goals in 25 games. (Columbus got its 50th goal in 25 games a few minutes after City SC did.)
But VAR turned out to be a two-way street. In the 88th minute, Markanich made a sliding attempt to block a shot, and the ball hit him in both the arm and the nose. The first one gave Orlando City a penalty kick and the second one gave Markanich a bloody nose. Torres took the penalty and scored, putting Orlando City up 2-1 in the 91st minute.
Three minutes later, Indiana Vassilev almost got City SC even with a volley from the top of the box that hit the post and bounced away. In the 99th minute, City SC defender Jake Nerwinski pulled an Orlando player down from behind to stop a scoring threat and was ejected from the game. Earlier in the game, Nerwinski had gotten a yellow card, his fifth of the season, which got him a one-game suspension, and the red card will get him another.
鈥淵ou have to take points out of these kinds of games,鈥 said Nilsson. 鈥淥bviously, we鈥檙e disappointed, but we will bounce back.鈥