The future for St. 亚洲无码 City SC is bright. Over the last two months of the season, once the team鈥檚 plethora of summer transfers got into the lineup, the club played better than most of the teams in Major League Soccer.
The very end of the season didn鈥檛 go quite so smoothly. In a game that mattered little for City SC 鈥 with a win, it could have possibly moved up from 12th place to 10th place in the Western Conference 鈥 City SC was flustered by Minnesota United鈥檚 style of play and fell 4-1 at Allianz Field in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The final score was a bit extreme, but much of that was the result of interim coach John Hackworth going for a result late in the game when it was trailing 1-0 because, really, why not? City SC gave up three goals in the final 18 minutes as it pushed forward for goals.
鈥淚 felt like at 1-0 in the 72nd minute,鈥 Hackworth said, 鈥渨e were going to go for it, we鈥檙e going to go for a draw, we鈥檙e going to go for the win. So if I have to look at myself critically, I would say that last 20-plus minutes was really not anywhere close to what we expected, making two positive attacking changes, but that鈥檚 what this team is close to doing. They鈥檙e close to being a really good team that鈥檚 able to compete in this league against anybody. Tonight, unfortunately, we didn鈥檛 get that performance or that result. ... At the end of the day, we didn鈥檛 play good enough.鈥
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Which, in many ways, sums up the 2024 season. City SC finished its second season with a record of eight wins, 13 losses and 13 ties for 37 points, 17 points fewer than it had in its first season. That鈥檚 the largest drop in points in MLS history for a team from its first to second seasons.
It went 1-8-8 on the road, one of two teams in MLS to win just once away from home during the season. (Though City SC outpointed the other one-win team, Dallas, 11 to 9.) City SC missed the last playoff spot in the Western Conference by 10 points.
鈥淲e haven鈥檛 been good on the road, and that鈥檚 an easy one,鈥 Hackworth said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not the way we wanted to end our season in any way, shape or form. But you do have to give teams like Minnesota a lot of credit for how good they鈥檙e playing.鈥
City SC finished 15 points behind Minnesota, the team it at one point was chasing for the last playoff spot in the West but which ended up in sixth place. The clubs met twice in City SC鈥檚 final six games, and City SC lost the games by a combined score of 7-2.
What did in City SC on Saturday was a physical issue but a mental one.
鈥淚 think we played an opponent that tactically put 11 guys in a super deep block,鈥 Hackworth said. 鈥淲e had a problem in solving that that led to a couple massive mistakes on our part, self-inflicted mistakes. But I don鈥檛 think we were flat. I think the game was tactically a game where Minnesota said, 鈥榃e don鈥檛 want the ball. We want you to have it. Try to break us down. And when you make a mistake, we鈥檙e going to try to counter you.鈥 And we knew that coming in, that鈥檚 just tactics in soccer, and so it wasn鈥檛 a physically hard game in the first half at all. But that鈥檚 not because, I don鈥檛 think the players didn鈥檛 have the desire to go do it. They needed to problem solve their way through that game, and we weren鈥檛 effective enough in that regard.鈥
City SC figured it out at halftime and was more dangerous in the attack in the second half, but it wasn鈥檛 until the 75th minute, when Marcel Hartel knocked in a cross from Klauss for a goal that made it 2-1. (The pass deflected off a defender, so Klauss didn鈥檛 get an assist on the play.)
But that goal highlighted the reason for the optimism for next season. In all but one game since Leagues Cup play ended 鈥 City SC鈥檚 shutout loss to LAFC 鈥 one of its summer acquisitions scored a goal. Thirteen of the team鈥檚 18 goals scored after Leagues Cup games, when the new players became eligible, were scored by players brought in during the summer transfer window. The goal was the third of the MLS season for Hartel, who also had two in Leagues Cup.
Trailing 2-1, City SC gave itself a chance to tie 鈥 which would have knocked Minnesota down to seventh place and given it a much tougher first-round opponent 鈥 but Henry Kessler headed a ball into his own net in the 78th minute to make it 3-1 and Jeong Sang-Bin, who scored twice after entering the game in the 69th minute, scored it make it 4-1.
For the fourth straight game, City SC was without midfielder Chris Durkin, who has a badly bruised knee, and Indiana Vassilev, who hurt his knee in practice last week
The MLS playoffs begin Tuesday. But for City SC, the offseason is underway, and some things will happen quickly. The team is expected to announce its decisions on the nine players it holds options on sometime this week, and the team will at some point name a new coach. Hackworth had five wins, six losses and three ties in MLS play after taking over for Bradley Carnell, plus went 2-1-1 in the Leagues Cup.
And in less than three months, training camp will open. While a 4-1 loss may not be the best result to head into the offseason, Hackworth doesn鈥檛 think it takes anything away from a team that had four wins, three ties and three losses over its final 10 games.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a game of soccer where we didn鈥檛 play well,鈥 Hackworth said. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 do what we鈥檙e supposed to do in a moment. It wasn鈥檛 as bad as that score line looks. And so I don鈥檛 think we should change all of the positives that we felt about what we did since the start of July, just because we didn鈥檛 win our last game away against a really good team. So no, I would say we still have lots of momentum going in next year. I think we鈥檙e going to be a really good team next year. No questions about it.鈥
City2 wins playoff game
Brendan McSorley and Mykhi Joyner scored for St. 亚洲无码 City2 in its come-from-behind 2-1 win over Los Angeles FC 2 in the first round of the MLS Next Pro playoffs on Sunday.
City2 fell behind in the 18th minute and then battled for a long time to get even before McSorley scored in the 63rd minute. He converted a crossing pass from Gabriel Mikina, who tightroped the ball along the sideline to get behind the LAFC 2 defense. For Joyner, who scored the winner three minutes into second half stoppage time, it was Caden Glover who delivered the ball in a perfect spot for Joyner to put it in.
City2 advances to the Western Conference semifinals and will find out Tuesday who it plays. MLS Next Pro uses a system in which the higher-rated teams get to pick who they want to play in each round. (City2 is the No. 2 seed in the West.) The draft for the next round will be held Tuesday.