City SC goalkeeper Roman Burki posted his fifth clean sheet on Saturday night, more than all but two other goalkeepers in Major League Soccer. He saved three shots, including a diving stop to prevent a goal.
Once again, Burki went home frustrated.
For the third time in those five shutouts, City SC couldn’t score either and had to settle for a 0-0 tie, this time with Portland on Saturday night at CityPark. City SC now has a league-high nine ties and has been shut out in three of its past seven games — four if you consider that its only goal against Cincinnati came when an opposing player, under no pressure, just shot the ball in his own net.
The struggles are starting to wear on the team’s goalkeeper and captain.
“It’s just annoying to be honest,†he said.
With its second straight tie — albeit one that looks very different from the 3-3 draw with Inter Miami — City SC has a five-game winless streak and a two-game unbeaten streak. The team has won three games this season, and they’ve been well spread out: March 2, April 14 and May 11.
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City SC has five goals in its past five games, two of which were scored by the other team, two of which were scored by primarily defensive players and only one, Indiana Vassilev’s against Miami, scored by an attacker. And, Burki said bluntly, that’s where the problem lies.
“It’s an ability to be ice cold in front of the goal, and there is no luck involved,†he said. “If we (hit) the guy who’s on the line, who’s not even looking at the ball, that’s skill, that’s not unlucky. That’s just not good enough. And if our striker is in front of the goal twice and misses the chances, that’s skill. That’s not unlucky. We brought him in and in super position, and we just didn’t score.
“For me, (it) has nothing to do with luck. I mean, we are in a situation where maybe everything is a little bit harder, especially if you compare it to last year. But we are professionals; we train every day. We can’t simulate pressure situations in training. But if you go to training you have to try to improve as best as you can and analyze what you are doing wrong. ... Sometimes you have to do a little bit more work than just the things that the coach says, maybe stay a little bit longer on the field. Maybe do exercises that maybe you don’t like because usually what you don’t like you’re not good at. ... We can talk about unlucky, but so we have been unlucky the whole season. Because we haven’t scored a lot of goals yet.â€
“He’s right,†said midfielder Hosei Kijima, who made his first start in an MLS game. “He’s totally right. There’s absolutely no mistaking what he’s saying. He has enough experience to see the game and read the game at a high level. ... He knows what he’s talking about.â€
“We have to be very critical with ourselves,†said midfielder Eduard Lowen, who came closer than anyone on the team to scoring with a free kick off the post in the 74th minute. “We don’t want to do this every single week, having a tie and saying, ‘Yeah, we should have done this better and this better.’ At a certain point, it’s enough. We just have to go out and have a winning mentality. We have to be good enough to finish these chances off.â€
The Portland tie joins the collection of games in the current five-game run without a win in which City SC created enough chances to win but didn’t finish them. The loss to Seattle and the tie with Inter Miami were winnable games considering the chances City SC had.
“Cliched as it is, I believe in this process, and I see many good things,†City SC coach Bradley Carnell said. “Just sometimes, is it the final pass? Is it the run? Is it the quality of the shot? Do we find the advantage, who is free, who is open, who takes that shot?
“Against good teams, you’re going to give up one or two moments. I’m glad they didn’t take theirs. There weren’t too many of them. But still, we dominate shots. We dominate (expected goals). We dominate corners. We dominate everything, just about, I suppose, and we still go empty-handed. But the positive is the clean sheet.â€
City SC continues to look like a team ready to break out but also continues to not do so. The offensive outburst seen in the 3-3 tie with Miami proved ephemeral. In its past 11 games, the team has scored three goals in three different games and either one or none in the rest.
“You can basically repeat what I said after last few games,†Burki said. “It’s just not enough what comes from us offensive-wise. We’re coming to the good situations, we have chances. But then we are just not cool enough in front of the goal to score a goal and what the danger is you can always concede a goal like we saw Seattle (do) on the deflection from Kyle (Hiebert). That can always happen. If we score, defending gets easier. The whole game is easier.â€
City SC’s best chances were on the free kick by Lowen that hit the post, the ensuing rebound that came to Tim Parker, only to have his shot blocked by Portland defender Claudio Bravo, who had his back to the play but still extended his left leg to stop the shot, and a shot by Celio Pompeu in the first half that Portland goalkeeper James Pantemis was screened on but saw just in time to make the save.
Meanwhile, Klauss had three shots he couldn’t put in and a bunch of chances where he either couldn’t get a shot off or couldn’t handle the ball.
“I honestly thought, ‘That ball is in,’†Lowen said of his free kick. “And then after that, I just saw Tim completely alone in front of the goal then thought, ‘Now, this one is in.’ I couldn’t believe that this ball wasn’t going in as well. Sometimes you can say it is unlucky, but at the end of the day, we have to blame ourselves for not finishing these chances off.â€
Lowen started the game and played the full 90 minutes for the first time since March 9. Meanwhile, center back Joakim Nilsson left the game in the 50th minute, which Carnell said was for a combination of concern about his knee after he had gone down early in the second half and his having picked up a yellow card. Josh Yaro came on and made his first appearance since April 6 when he re-injured his hamstring. Midfielder Chris Durkin picked up a fifth yellow card and will have to sit out a one-game suspension.
“I didn’t see any clarity in his running,†Carnell said. “It looked like he was struggling.â€