ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC is unbeaten in its past four Major League Soccer games. Toss in the Leagues Cup and it has lost only once in the past eight games. The team’s offense has scored multiple goals in five straight games. It is on as good a run of games as it has been on all season.
It’s also on the brink of being knocked out of the playoff race.
City SC fell victim to its biggest nemesis all season, the inability to win a game. City SC played to its 13th tie of the season on a rainy Saturday night in Foxborough, Massachusetts, tying the New England Revolution 2-2 at Gillette Stadium. City SC picked up one point on ninth place Minnesota, which had the weekend off, with six games left to play. Two of those games, including one on Saturday at CityPark, are against Minnesota, which has seven games to play; those games are essentially must-win. But even if City SC wins its remaining six games, it will need Minnesota to not win more than three. It will also need Dallas and Austin, which are between City SC and Minnesota, to not get hot.
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City SC is making progress on the field, but not in the standings.
“I think we just have to focus on ourselves,†said interim coach John Hackworth. “And every time we get an opportunity, trying to be better than the last time. And while that might be hard for fans to understand that we just beat the Galaxy and now we come and draw New England, you go on the road in this league, and you play in a tough environment, tough surface, well-coached team, you go down a goal, I thought we showed a ton of character, and so I'm banking on that character. I personally believe that we're not out of time yet, we still have control. We have to fix this little moment where we take our foot off the gas, where we don't play with the same initiative that we do to start the game. That's something we can fix. We have fixed it. We have gotten better. So I'm Positive Pete here, and I'm going to say it till I'm blue in the face, but I believe in this group of guys. I still think we have a good chance.â€
The new group of guys is doing well, but the team still needs to cross the line between ties and wins, especially on the road, where it has yet to win this season. City SC got goals from two players who joined the team in the summer transfer window, center back Henry Kessler, who came in a trade with New England and was taking on his former team for the first time, and Simon Becher, who has four goals in six games. But if that’s new, City SC also did something it has done frequently this season, dropped its intensity immediately after scoring. For the fourth time in the past six games, City SC allowed a goal within five minutes of its scoring. Kessler put City SC ahead 1-0 in the 23rd minute, and by the 40th minute, City SC was down 2-1. The first of those New England goals was helped by Kessler slipping on the wet turf to free Luca Langoni to come in along on goalkeeper Roman Burki and the second came when the team twice let New England get free on City SC’s right wing and then left its middle exposed for prime goal-scoring chances.
“I think that we literally, for some crazy reason, when we score, we don't stick to the things that have gotten us in that position,†Hackworth said. “And when you're playing good teams, you can't do that. Look, we were unlucky too. We were just flat out unlucky on that first goal. So you have to deal with that. I'm more upset with the second goal and the fact that we didn't correct it in-game, and rather, had to come into the locker room and show the video of it and then correct it. But that is a problem, and when I'm saying we have to fix something, that's it. We can't keep giving up goals after we go up. Clearly, that's not a new problem. We have to solve it.â€
“I think it's a little bit more maturity after we score,†Becher said. “I think we've kind of seen it in a few games where we take our foot off the gas a little bit. I don't know if it's a mentality thing, but I think that's definitely something we need to do better as an 11 on the field.â€
It was also a game where City SC’s offense created enough chances that it could have won. City SC took 21 shots, a season-high 11 of which were on goal. New England goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic made nine saves, many of them requiring diving efforts. With Hackworth knowing the importance of a win, he brought on Klauss in the 57th minute and took out left back Jannes Horn, shifting to a three-man backline and having Klauss and Becher play together up top. It created lots of chances but until Becher scored, none of them would go in.
It was an emotional night for Kessler, back in New England where he played for 4½ years before being traded to City SC for Tim Parker at the start of August. (Parker made his first appearance with New England in the game.) It was one of those nights where the play found him, whether it was on his header to put City SC ahead or slipping to set up New England’s tying goal.
“It was an eventful night,†he said. “I knew that going in. Obviously the goal made it more eventful. Also giving up one on the other end, which I'm really disappointed about.â€
“This was probably asking a lot of Henry to come back here, to his only other team he's had in the MLS,†Hackworth said. “They clearly like him here a lot. They showed a Kessler highlight reel in the pregame, and the fans are going crazy. That's something that a player has to deal with emotionally. For him to score the goal, fantastic. Unfortunate that he slips on the first goal. I really think that was just one of those unlucky plays. And the surface has a lot to do with that, when it was getting a little wet. But he stayed in it, dug in deep, we went to a back three, and he's the only guy in the middle, and played really brave. So, I think there's a lot to build on with Henry's performance.â€
Becher scored off a pass from Hartel (who also took the corner kick that Kessler scored on), but also gave credit for the goal to Klauss, who continued his run toward goal, taking the defense with him and leaving Becher with room to get the ball.
“A really good cutback from Marcel,†Becher said, “but I think Klauss did a really good job, selling a little fake there, which I think maybe throws the goalkeeper off, those defenders off and allows me to get a pretty clean shot off. … Good to I guess link up again in that sense, the three of us.â€
There was also a very angry New England coach Caleb Porter, who had a VAR call for a potential penalty kick go against his team and had the league’s new speedy substitution rule also go against his team, leaving them a man down when Becher scored his tying goal. On the potential PK, a ball came off the head of Nacho Gil in the box and clearly hit the arm of leaping City SC defender Kyle Hiebert. Referee Tim Ford let play go on but at the next stoppage, VAR Luis Guardia told Ford to take another look, which almost always results in the referee overturning his initial ruling. But Ford stuck to his decision, telling a pool reporter that “the ball took an unexpected deflection into the ºüÀêÊÓƵ player’s arm which was in a justifiable position for his action.â€
This came about 10 minutes after Gil’s entrance into the game was delayed because the player coming out, Langoni, did not get off the field in the allotted time. In a new rule being used in MLS this season, that meant Gil had to wait at least a minute before being eligible to enter the game at the next stoppage of play. New England played a man down until the next stoppage, which turned out to be after Becher’s goal.
“The referee was a complete coward in that moment (of the video review),†said Porter, who can expect a hefty fine from the league, “Complete coward and it’s a travesty. He shouldn’t officiate. He cost our players two points today, two really important points, and I’m not going to stand for it. … You’re supposed to, as an official, use your discretion in those moments. He did not use his discretion in either of those moments. … He is not competent enough to be an official in this league.â€
City SC’s margin for error, which was small to begin with, is now probably down to zero.
“It's tough to sit here and think of this being a positive,†Hackworth said, “but I do think we took another step in the right direction tonight. … I'm really happy with our performance, for about 70 minutes of that game. We're so close to being a really good team. We're not there yet, but at the same time, you come back from a goal down at halftime and give our guys a lot of credit for creating multiple chances and getting an equalizer. … At the end of the day, this is a position that not exactly what we wanted, but I think we're still making progress.â€