City SC’s new additions wasted little time in making their presence felt.
Cedric Teuchert, playing his second game for City SC, scored in the 27th minute and Marcel Hartel, playing his first game, converted a penalty kick in the 49th minute, after Simon Becher, also playing his first game, was fouled in the box to earn the PK.
The goals gave City SC a 2-1 win over Dallas in the Leagues Cup opener before a non-sellout crowd of 17,584 at CityPark. The win doesn’t technically snap the team’s four-game MLS winless streak, but for this team at this time, a win is a win, even if it doesn’t change the Western Conference standings. The result also snapped a streak of four games with the team scoring one goal or less.
City SC faces Mexican club Juarez next Sunday in its other Leagues Cup group game. Dallas and Juarez meet on Wednesday in Frisco, Texas. With the top two teams in the three-team group advancing, City SC took a big step toward moving on.
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It was, it goes without saying, a tight one all the way for City SC, especially with Dallas pushing for a tying goal for most of the second half.
The penalty kick came after a long ball to Becher in the box, who got tangled up with Sebastien Ibeagha and went down, with referee Ekaterina Koroleva immediately signaling for the PK. The kick was delayed while VAR looked at it, but the call stood and Hartel, after some stuttersteps, rolled the ball to his right, just out of the reach of diving Maarten Paes.
Hartel and Teuchert both were subbed out in the 69th minute. Teuchert went 63 minutes before coming out last Saturday against Sporting Kansas City. Becher came out in the 76th minute.
City SC had several chances in the early going that it couldn’t turn into anything, and it looked like its chance in the 27th minute would go away as well. Chris Durkin stole a pass and played it to Becher at the top of the box, but his first touch was off and he immediately lost it. But then he won it back, and got the ball wide to Thorisson, whose cross into the box found Teuchert pretty much on the penalty spot and he one-timed it in underneath a diving Paes. Teuchert ran to the corner flag with his teammates in pursuit to celebrate the goal.
Dallas had taken the lead in the 18th minute when Sam Junqua outraced Tomas Totland for a pass and came in alone on Roman Burki and scored. Not long after Teuchert scored, Dallas almost retook the lead. A cross into the box by Emmanuel Twumasi of Dallas caught the outstretched arm of Jayden Reid, though it went undetected by Koroleva at the moment. After City SC had gotten the ball and taken it to the other end, Korolev stopped play for a VAR review, which led to the penalty kick decision. Peter Musa of Dallas stepped up to the spot and while Burki dived to his left, Musa went down the middle, but over the bar and into the stands.