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Klauss and Rasmus Alm, two key parts of the team’s offensive attack when healthy, have been practicing with the team and could return to play for the first time in months Sunday when City SC plays the Los Angeles Galaxy at CityPark.

“That was really nice,� interim coach John Hackworth said.

It’s an encouraging sign that City SC needs amid a disappointing season. Both have been out since June with knee sprains, and both were on the field Wednesday with wraps on their right knees. Klauss took part in all of practice, Alm took part in most. Hackworth said Klauss is “for sure� going to be available for Sunday, but there was still some uncertainty about Alm.

“Ras, I’m a little more conservative with,� Hackworth said, “just because I want him to be pain-free in all of his actions, and he’s not right now. I don’t think any of them are ready to start, necessarily, but it’ll be nice to have them.�

Alm hasn’t played since June 1, Klauss since June 22.

Klauss still leads the team in goals with five, though new acquisitions Cedric Teuchert, Marcel Hartel and Simon Becher, who have played only one or two MLS games each, are showing signs of closing ground quickly. Nokkvi Thorisson, with three goals in the past four MLS games, has four on the season.

Alm has appeared in only 12 games this season, but the team generally does well when he’s in the lineup, with the team winning two and tying seven of his 12 games.

Joakim Nilsson, coming back from a hamstring injury, has practiced with the team as well but didn’t get in a full session because of a knock.

“Unfortunate that Joakim took a knock there because he was back and looking really good Monday and Tuesday as well,� Hackworth said.

It’s hot

An extra challenge at practice this week has been the heat. The temperature hit 102 degrees Tuesday in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, and City SC, which practices in the late morning, usually starting around 10:30, hasn’t been able to avoid it.

“Today was a little better than yesterday,� center back Henry Kessler said, “but yesterday was scorching.�

“It’s been brutal,� Hackworth said. “Today’s not so bad, but the last two days have been really tough. We’ve had tough sessions, but the players have battled through it. I think it’s good preparation. I hope it’s very hot and humid (Sunday) so the L.A. boys will melt in the Missouri sun.�

Hackworth said the game plan in practice wasn’t changed by the extreme heat.

“You have to adapt to the environment in our sport,� he said. “So it wasn’t like we wanted to do something different. We had a plan for the week, and we stuck to it. It was probably nice that today cooled down a little bit because it might have been tough to get from yesterday to today with the intensity that we had.�

City SC’s game Sunday against the Galaxy kicks off at 1:45 p.m., and the forecast for then isn’t quite so bad, with a high of 88.

“Here, it’s so hot,� said newly arrived German left back Jannes Horn, “and when you go inside, it’s so cold. So it’s weird for my family. ... Yesterday was so hot, I told my wife, I never saw something like that. I never expected this.�

Where’s Blom?

Njabulo Blom has not played the past three games and has appeared in only one of the past seven. The defensive midfielder from South Africa was suspended for the Portland game in Leagues Cup because of a violation of team rules, and for the next two games, both on the road, he was eligible but not chosen for the travel roster. With the imminent return of Klauss and Alm, spots on the 20-player game-day roster are going to get even harder to come by.

Blom was the odd man out of the last drill on Wednesday. He kicked a ball around with Alm while the practice went on.

Hackworth hesitated when asked about Blom’s situation.

“He’s available for selection,� Hackworth said, after searching for what to say and asking a staff member for assistance.

Hackworth downplayed the part of practice in which Blom didn’t take part.

“That’s the role that we asked him to play,� he said. “So we were doing 11 v. 11 at the end. It’s another part of that. ... I wouldn’t read too much into that, without saying anything else. I would just say: Hey, look, if somebody got hurt, Njabulo was in there.�

Outside back issues

Whether Horn starts on Sunday instead of Jayden Reid is up in the air as Horn gets into game shape after a long layoff, but Hackworth raised questions about the right back spot as well, where Tomas Totland has started almost every game.

“Right back and left back are really tough decisions right now,� Hackworth said, “and there’s others, but those two ... and they have to be better. As well as we’ve played with our outside backs, I’m not telling any secrets, we’ve given up goals at those two positions and we, in particular, need to defend the far side, the far post if you will. We have to do that better. We have not been good at that.�

Club America scored on Totland in the Leagues Cup, playing a long ball in his direction. He got turned around and then beaten as Brian Rodriguez scored the goal that made it 1-0 on the way to a 4-2 win for Club America.

ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC

ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC finishes with a thud, lets two precious points slip away in tie with Portland

• Tom Timmermann

ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC

City SC gets back to work after Leagues Cup break with small margin for error

• Tom Timmermann

ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC

Losses, injuries — and an eye on 2025 — spurred ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC's active transfer window

• Tom Timmermann

Sure, the offense scored 4 goals, but the defense allowed 4. A tie in Portland means ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC made no headway in its quest for the playoffs. City beat writer Tom Timmermann and co-host Beth O’Malley discuss the team’s performance and outlook.

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There are ties that feel like a win, and there are ties that feel like a loss. ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC’s 4-4 tie with the Portland Timbers on Saturday night felt like a catastrophe.

With a chance to record a breakthrough win on multiple fronts and breathe hope into its faint playoff hopes, City SC could not hold on to a two-goal second-half lead. It could not hold on to a one-goal lead with a man advantage with 15 minutes to play. At a point in the season where City SC was going to have start doing things it hadn’t done all season, it did exactly what it has been doing all season.

“Really don’t know what to say,� said a clearly frustrated interim coach John Hackworth. “It’s hard to imagine coming to a place like this and scoring four goals, being up and then just losing one vs. one defensive battles. Usually when you go to Portland, and if you could say, ‘Hey, you’re going to get a draw out of the game,’ you would take it. But it doesn’t feel that way. And that’s not what we had a chance to do. Definitely feel like we let two points slip there. Nobody to blame but ourselves. ... This is definitely an Achilles’ heel, our Achilles’ heel right now, because we’re giving up too many goals, and it’s very frustrating.�

“With the performance we had, it really stings, to be honest,� said forward Simon Becher, who scored a goal and set up another by getting fouled in the penalty area. “I feel like we should have walked away with three points, but going on the road and playing like that for 110 minutes almost really stings, especially when you work that hard and you put that much in the game.�

At a point in the season when City SC needs wins to keep alive its playoff hopes, a tie is practically a loss. City SC came into the game probably needing seven wins in its final nine games and now probably needs seven wins in its final eight games. City SC started the night 10 points out of the last playoff spot and finished it in the same spot. And in City SC’s position, treading water is not a survival tactic.

City SC has given up four goals three times in its past five MLS games (four times in its past nine overall), and it could have been worse on Saturday. City SC’s expected goals allowed was 5.7, the highest total in club history by two goals. (The previous high for an opponent was 3.5 by Austin last season.) Portland thought it had tied the game in the 82nd minute, only to have VAR wipe out the goal for offside, but even after tying the game in the 99th minute, Portland came very close to scoring again and winning the whole thing.

“If you don’t win balls that are put into your box,� Hackworth said, “and you don’t jump for headers, you don’t stand guys up, and you don’t get a block, these are all critical moments in a game that are very preventable and should be executed at this level at a much higher level. ... Ball’s flighted in the box. You got to get a header on it. Second balls, we have to battle for those. We were very timid, and I didn’t like that. It didn’t feel good watching it from the side. Tried to make some substitutions to bring some life to it. Unfortunately, that didn’t work either.

“The one thing I like about our locker room right now is everyone is really, really upset. I don’t think there’s one person in there that isn’t feeling the exact same way I am. Roman (Burki) spoke very candidly about the fact that this just is not going to get us to where we want to go. We’re not going to be the team, no matter whether we’re scoring four goals or not. You’ve got to be able to defend your box, and unfortunately, we didn’t do that.�

The tie will obscure another big performance by the team’s new attacking trio of Becher, Cedric Teuchert and Marcel Hartel. Becher scored one goal and set up another by getting fouled. Teuchert had a goal and an assist. Hartel became just the second player in MLS history to have three assists in his first MLS game, two on corner kicks. (The other to have three is Carlos Hermosillo of the Galaxy in 1998.) Goals from Eduard Lowen on a penalty kick and Nokkvi Thorisson in the run of play finished the scoring.

City SC’s problems are not new. When it gave up a goal to Portland three minutes after Lowen’s PK put them up 2-0, it was the third time in the past four games City SC had given up a goal within four minutes of scoring one of its own. When City SC couldn’t hold a second-half lead, it was the eighth time that had happened, at the cost of 18 points. With 18 more points, City SC would be in fourth place in the West, not 13th.

The team has dropped 13 points from games it led going into the 70th minute. It’s the second time it has lost a lead in stoppage time. The team has lost five points in games it has held two-goal leads.

Every time it looked like City SC was out of the woods, the team turned around and went back in. It looked as if City SC had gotten the last break it would need in the 93rd minute when Portland’s Felipe Mora, who scored two goals, got a red card for fouling Chris Durkin and then catching him in the head with his shoe after Durkin fell to the ground. But six minutes later, Hosei Kijima, who came on as a sub in the 69th minute, was called for a foul on Portland star Evander 5 yards from the top of the penalty area on the left side facing the goal. With a four-man City SC wall in front of him, he curved the ball over the wall and into the top left-hand corner of the goal to tie the game

“It’s pretty simple,� Hackworth said. “I don’t even know what to say. I’m anxious to go look at the game film. I do want to give Portland credit. I mean, they’re a really good team. They have some very dynamic attacking players. Evander hits a world-class free kick there. Not sure that was a foul. Doesn’t look like Hosei even touched him. But again, that’s on us. We have to do better in these areas because we can’t expect to go on the road and score four goals and give up four goals. That’s just unacceptable.�

This was the kind of night it was: Burki made a couple of strong saves in the second half to keep City SC ahead, but he also fumbled two balls on Saturday. The first would have turned into a goal if not for a miracle block by Henry Kessler and the second one was scored on and trimmed City SC’s lead to 3-2.

“Roman made some unbelievable saves,� Hackworth said, “so I don’t want to fault him. But you expect Roman to hold the third goal for sure. It was a good shot. It was trailing away from a little bit, so it wasn’t easy, but 10 times out of 10 you expect him to hold that.�

Kessler and Jannes Horn made their debuts for City SC. Kessler started and had a key block of what looked like a sure Portland goal in the first half and Horn came on as a substitute and got a yellow card 20 minutes into his MLS career, which may be some kind of a record.

Klauss and Rasmus Alm did not make the trip, but Hackworth said they are expected to be full participants at practice this week and should be available for selection for the game with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC

City SC gets back to work after Leagues Cup break with small margin for error

• Tom Timmermann

ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC

Losses, injuries — and an eye on 2025 — spurred ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC's active transfer window

• Tom Timmermann

ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC

As MLS play looms, ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC's Klauss, Alm closer but not quite ready to return

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In the kind of game that has put ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC in the position its in, City SC couldn’t hold on to a two-goal lead in the second half and squandered a chance for its first road win of the season, having to settle for a 4-4 tie with the Portland Timbers on Saturday night in Oregon.

At a time of year when ties are not good for a City SC team desperately clawing for a playoff spot, Evander scored on a free kick in the 99th minute to tie the game and deny City SC of three points and left them with only one. It wasted a quality offensive effort by the team’s new acquisitions but the defense let them down as it allowed four goals for the fourth time in the past nine games.

Simon Becher and Cedric Teuchert scored, both off corner kicks from Marcel Hartel, Eduard Lowen converted a penalty kick after Becher was fouled in the box and Nokkvi Thorisson, who’s not a new guy, scored off a pass from Teuchert. Becher, Teuchert and Hartel were all players City SC added in the summer transfer window and another new player, center back Henry Kessler, also made a big block to stop a sure goal late in the first half.

Evander was fouled by Hosei Kijima five yards from the top of the box in the 99th minute and on the ensuing free kick, Evander curved it over a four-man wall and out of reach of a diving Roman Burki.

City SC is still in 13th place in the Western Conference, and is still 10 points out of the final playoff spot, but now has eight games left to play.

Becher started the scoring in the 11th minute off a corner kick. Lowen had played a long ball to Tomas Totland, and Portland keeper Maxime Crepeau had to deflect Totland’s ball into the box over the net for a corner. Hartel took the corner and found an unmarked Becher at the near post for an easy header and his third goal for City SC, but his first in an MLS match.

Becher set up the second goal when Portland’s Miguel Araujo wiped him out in the box just after he had taken a shot that was stopped by Crepeau. Referee Ramy Touchan signaled for a penalty kick and, in the 36th minute, Lowen slammed it into the upper left corner for his fourth MLS goal and his fifth overall. Four of his five goals have come on penalty kicks.

One thing City SC hasn’t done well is crank up its defense after allowing a goal and in the 39th minute, Jonathan Rodriguez had an easy tap-in off a pass by Felipe Mora that went through the legs of Kyle Hiebert. It was the third time in the past four games that City SC has scored a goal and then allowed a goal within the next four minutes, and two of those came against Portland. (The other was against Juarez in the Leagues Cup.)

Portland cranked up the pressure and threatened to tie the game, but City SC got the ball out and threatened at the other end, with a shot by Nokkvi Thorisson being blocked and going out for a corner kick. Hartel again took the corner and hit an outswinger to the top of the box to an unmarked Teuchert, whose shot found its way through traffic and in to make it 3-1 in the 47th minute.

Portland almost did it again. Roman Burki couldn’t hang on to a high ball in the box and it fell to Portland’s Felipe Mora, with no one between him and the net. But as he shot the ball, Kessler, playing his first game with the team after being acquired in a trade for Tim Parker, came flying in and, careful to keep his arms out of the way, threw his body in front of the shot and it deflected off him and off the frame and out. City SC was able to take the 3-1 lead into the half.

Mora got a goal in the 57th minute to make it 3-2, but this time it was City SC’s turn to quickly get a goal back. Two minutes later, Thorisson got a ball in the back, cut back to his left and put a shot with his left foot just inside the post to make it 4-2.

But nothing was safe in this game. Portland made it 4-3 when Mora put in a rebound Burki couldn’t hold on to in the 64th minute. It looked as though Portland had tied the game on a header by Antony in the 82nd minute, but a VAR check showed he was offside and the goal was wiped out. Mora got a red card in the 93rd minute when he fouled Chris Durkin and then caught the fallen Durkin in the head with his cleat.

ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC

City SC gets back to work after Leagues Cup break with small margin for error

• Tom Timmermann

ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC

Losses, injuries — and an eye on 2025 — spurred ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC's active transfer window

• Tom Timmermann

ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC

As MLS play looms, ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC's Klauss, Alm closer but not quite ready to return

• Tom Timmermann

ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC player Tomas Totland joins beat writer Tom Timmermann and co-host Beth O'Malley to discuss life in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, playing in the heat and what travel is like in the MLS.

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