The arrival of Cedric Teuchert, Marcel Hartel and Simon Becher has changed the look of City SC’s attack in one big swoop, and it’s also changed another thing: Attacking players who had been getting a lot of playing time, even starting, won’t be getting as much.
Consider John Klein, who went from playing at City2 to getting a first-team contract to starting six games in a row as a midfielder. He came off the bench and played 22 minutes on Saturday.
“I had a good run of starts,†Klein said Wednesday as the team returned to the practice field in preparation for their Leagues Cup game on Sunday at CityPark against Mexican club FC Juarez. “And now if my role is going to be off the bench, like it was on Saturday, and I’m really happy with that. I think I can come in and bring energy that way. But whatever (interim coach John Hackworth) needs me to do, I’ll be ready.â€
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“Johnny Klein and Hosei (Kijima), they have done a great job for us,†Hackworth said Saturday, “but it’s really nice when you have some depth like that and you can bring those guys on to the field when legs are getting tired. It’s nice to have those choices. And that’s indicative of the whole locker room. We’ve had more competition in training for the minutes, and we’ve just got to build upon that.â€
“It’s been great, just being out here in this environment every day,†Klein said. “I think I’m improving a lot and just every session, every game, getting more comfortable in my role within the team and just keep growing. I think I’m doing well, but I know there’s more success to be had out there.â€
Alm, Klauss still on hold
The competition for those positions will get even more intense when Rasmus Alm and Klauss return from injuries, but that is still a few weeks away. Alm and Klauss are both back on the training field, but both have yet to rejoin the full squad and are working individually with trainers. Alm seems to be a step ahead of Klauss in the process.
“He’s getting there,†Hackworth said. “We just want to be careful with these guys that we don’t bring them back too soon. And thankfully, we have a full group training right now, so we don’t need to push him and we just need to be cautious with him. He has to be 100% before he comes back.â€
Hackworth said Klauss is on about the same schedule as Alm and that Joakim Nilsson is a week behind those two. Ideally, the team would be able to get Alm or Klauss in Leagues Cup games to get them ready for MLS play.
“Yeah, so let’s plan on going to the final and then straight back to league play,†Hackworth joked. “But again, we’ll take that as it comes.â€
Crowded house
The attendance for City SC’s Leagues Cup game with Dallas was 17,584, the smallest home crowd in City SC history and only the second non-sellout in 35 games at CityPark. The other non-sellout with the Champions Cup game with Houston to start the season on Feb. 20.
City SC’s supporters groups are boycotting the Leagues Cup because of its impact on the Open Cup. The stadium was quieter on Saturday, with no drumming and only occasional organized cheers, though the supporters section at the north end of the stadium was the most densely packed part of the stadium.
“I would just say that the people that were in the building were fantastic,†Hackworth said. “I had a bunch of guys that I bike with, my cycling team, and they did a fantastic job of making it loud. So while we miss our supporters, at the same time, the fans that were here were fantastic.â€
For City SC’s new arrivals, it was their first exposure to CityPark, so they won’t hear the crowd at full throat until Sept. 1, when City SC plays the Los Angeles Galaxy.
“It was a great atmosphere,†said Hartel, who made his City SC debut against Dallas. “I heard that our supporters were blockading the Leagues Cup. But thanks for every fan who was coming. It was a great atmosphere was a nice debut for me, and we are all happy to win this game.â€
City SC had two non-MLS games last season, and both sold out. The first was an Open Cup game with Union Omaha and the second a Leagues Cup game with Club America, the most popular club in Mexico with an active fan base in America.
Notes
If City SC were to advance out of group play, it would host a game at CityPark on Aug. 7, 8 or 9 (most likely Aug. 8 or 9).
Under tournament rules, in the knockout rounds, if the game is between two MLS teams, the home team is determined by who has the higher seed, and City SC is, based on last season’s standings, seeded seventh.
If the game is against a Mexican club, it is at the MLS team site, unless the opponent is Club America, Monterrey or Chivas, the top-seeded Mexican teams, which have been given hub status to reduce the amount of travel they have. Club America is in City SC’s quarter of the bracket.
- As a former coach in the U.S. youth national program, the U.S. men’s team’s run to the quarterfinals of the Olympics, an under-23 tournament on the men’s side, is special for Hackworth.
“It’s actually pretty cool,†he said “Clive Charles was the last coach that was able to get an Olympic team to a semifinal, and that team, one of my bosses (with the U-17s), John Ellinger, was an assistant. Peter Mellor was an assistant, and all of the players on that team somehow I worked with, so from that team in 2000 to now, that’s 24 years, so it is quite nice to see us coming back to that level.â€