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City SC has the power to determine whether a disappointing outcome in the season opener lingers or if it merely serves as a springboard. After all, the team didn’t lose its home opener on Saturday night.

Of course, it also didn’t win. So that leaves it on a precarious perch for the time being.

At the moment, with a sample size of just one game, the club has shown reason for frustration as well as optimism. The latter would flow much more readily with a win — or, more to the point, a goal.

One goal isn’t so much to ask — except for some unearthly reason it was too tall a task in a 0-0 draw against the Colorado Rapids (a Stan Kroenke outfit) on Saturday night at Energizer Park.

New coach Olof Mellberg rightly described his team as having “dominated� play. The eye test and the statistics bear that out.

City SC outshot the Rapids 18-2. The club put five shots on goal compared to none for the Rapids. That doesn’t include a City SC goal that got wiped off the board for an offside penalty in the first half. City SC controlled possession for 53% of the game, held a 6-1 advantage on corner kicks and also won the aerial duels and expected-goals battle.

All that went in their favor, but the ball did not find its way into the net.

“I was happy with the end, with the last 15-20 (minutes) when we showed even more confidence in our buildup,� Mellberg said. “A little bit more movement. The center backs being a little bit more confident taking the ball forward. We just need to continue to build on our confidence.�

It only took the opening minutes of the match to see that the Rapids attack seemed choppy and without much bite, their players more likely to kick it out of bounds than to threaten City SC goalkeeper Roman Burki. Their best tactic to maintain possession early on seemed to move the ball backward. Credit City SC for setting that tone early.

The Rapids briefly seemed content to allow City SC to maintain possession in the early stages. While that strategy might have been a golden ticket for opponents against City last season, the home club turned into a recipe for scoring chances. That certainly provided an encouraging early sign of progress.

Another sign of progress came in the form of forward Simon Becher. Five minutes in, he pounced on a mistake with the ball by the Rapids in their own end and created an opportunity. Becher, who scored four goals in nine games (six starts) last season, played 81 minutes and registered five shots, three on-target scoring attempts in the opener.

“We talk a lot about tempo and control,� Becher said. “Possession is not necessarily a goal of ours. We want to be dangerous and take what teams give us. Colorado was backing off a little bit, so I think that’s where you see a little bit more of the possession, but also we created a lot of chances — so continuing to probe and try to be dangerous and put balls in dangerous places. I think that’s kind of what they gave us.�

Becher expressed disappointment with the inability to score despite the wealth of chances generated, but he looked at the performance as a starting point with more growth to come.

“The relationship, I think you saw at the end of last season, it was forming really well,� Becher said. “So just continuing to work on that. I think if we continue this way, a lot of goals will come.�

Defensively, City SC played a near textbook game in front of its captain Burki.

The three-man back line of Joshua Yaro, Henry Kessler and Kyle Hiebert thoroughly bottled up the Rapids’ attack. Their striker and designated player, Rafael Navarro, scored 15 goals and logged five assists in 34 matches with 90 shots last season.

The combination of Yaro and Kessler bracketed Navarro most of the night and kept him from having an impact. Navarro did not even attempt a shot.

“I think it I were to attribute it to one thing, it would be back line shifting,� Kessler said of the stellar defensive outing.

The revolving door at center back because of injury last season might now be a positive in that it has allowed individuals to gain experience and also helped chemistry and communication develop among the group.

“That’s just a result of really good team defending,� Kessler said of not allowing the Rapids a shot on goal. “I’m not sure that I’ve been part of a game where we’ve given up zero shots on goal. That’s a great thing that that happened. I think there was a lot of good communication, a lot of good shifting on the back line.�

City SC’s opener left a bit of a sour taste in that it didn’t get a win but played well enough to create belief that it’s at a good starting point.