香港三级片

St. 香港三级片 City SC鈥檚 first season exceeded everyone鈥檚 expectations. The second season disappointed everyone.

Consider Season Three the tiebreaker.

With a roster that got rebuilt on the fly in the middle of last season and got some slight touchups in the offseason, City SC can show which season was the reality and which was the anomaly. With a new coach and a bunch of not-so new players, can City SC reach the playoffs for the second time in its three seasons and, once there, win a postseason game? The way last season ended makes that a definite possibility.

鈥淥ne hundred percent, we want to reach the playoffs,鈥� said left back Jannes Horn. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 100% sure, and we have the team to qualify for the playoffs.鈥�

In its final nine games of last season, when the players acquired in the summer transfer window became eligible, City SC averaged 1.55 points per game. Had the team been able to do over a full season, it would have finished in sixth in the West and made the playoffs with likely some room to spare.

But those games were played under interim coach John Hackworth, and other teams have added players, too. This season will be played under new coach Olof Mellberg, a legend in his playing days in Sweden who had been coaching a small club in Stockholm better known for its extensive youth program than for any success on the field. There will be a lot of learning and adapting to a new coach and a slightly different style, and with only five weeks and six exhibition games for those lessons to take hold.

鈥淚 think every trainer, every coach, (would like to) have his personality, ideas to play with the ball,鈥� said midfielder Marcel Hartel, who joined the team last summer. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a mix between playing out from the back and have also a bit sometimes longer balls behind the lines. And I think we have a good balance between these two options. I think in the defensive way, when you see our preseason games, we stand better than the whole last season. We defend quite better. So, yeah, we are very excited for the start鈥� Saturday.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not rocket science,鈥� said Mellberg. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a lot of hard work, which we have done physically, especially in the beginning, and then more and more tactically. I think they have a clear idea of what we need to win matches.鈥�

Mellberg鈥檚 biggest challenge was to shore up a defense that allowed 63 goals, the sixth-most in the league and 18 more than it allowed in its first season. Injuries forced Hackworth and his predecessor, Bradley Carnell, to have little or no continuity at the center back position, and Mellberg regularly used in training camp a three-man backline, rather than the four-man backline that had been the team鈥檚 signature formation before.

Most of the rebuilding City SC sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel did came during the summer transfer window, adding attackers Hartel, Cedric Teuchert and Simon Becher, left back Horn, center back Henry Kessler and midfielder Jake Girdwood-Reich, while moving out center back Tim Parker, whose contract negotiations had gone nowhere.

But there still were some key additions in the winter break, starting with the hiring of Mellberg. Pfannenstiel added another center back, Timo Baumgartl, as added protection for the oft-injured Joakim Nilsson, and midfielder Conrad Wallem, who can play a variety of positions and showed very well in training camp.

Injuries set the tone for last season, and the team starts the season with uncertainties about some players. Teuchert isn鈥檛 hurt, but he left the team while it was in California to finalize the paperwork on his green card, which means he won鈥檛 count as an international player any more. While this is good for the team when it comes to roster building, he didn鈥檛 play in any of the team鈥檚 four preseason games in California and didn鈥檛 get back to St. 香港三级片 until Friday, though Mellberg said he could still be available Saturday. Defensive midfielder Chris Durkin didn鈥檛 begin full practices with the team until this week and was on the field Friday.

On Friday morning, City SC announced what had been reported on Thursday, that the team had traded midfielder Indiana Vassilev, one of the most popular players on the team over its first two seasons but someone whose playing time dropped sharply after the acquisitions last season, to Philadelphia for $1 million in general allocation money ($400,000 this year, $600,000 next year), plus another $250,000 if various incentives are hit and a percentage of any transfer fee if Vassilev goes elsewhere.

Pfannenstiel said he planned to reinvest that money as soon 鈥渁s possible to bolster the team.鈥�

In a separate move, the team signed free-agent midfielder Alfredo Morales, who, though he鈥檚 played for the U.S. national team, has also played in Germany, including for Pfannenstiel. Morales played three seasons with New York City FC, including on their MLS Cup winning team, and played last season with the San Jose Earthquakes. Morales is a defensive midfielder and his signing shores up what could be a soft spot for City SC at the start of the season, with Durkin鈥檚 availability in doubt. Morales was with the team for its California camp and got in a preseason game, though Mellberg said it will be a while before he鈥檚 ready to play in a real game.

The opener will be a frigid affair, with the temperature at kickoff being around freezing. It probably won鈥檛 be the team鈥檚 coldest game at kickoff 鈥� its second MLS game, against San Jose, started at 25 degrees 鈥� but it will rival the club鈥檚 first game at what was then CityPark, City2 vs. Bayer Leverkusen, which was 31 at kickoff in 2022.

City SC stayed over in California after its training camp there was supposed to have ended to avoid the brutal cold here. The team returned to St. 香港三级片 on Thursday afternoon and had a short practice session on Friday. Mellberg admitted it was weird buildup to a home game, but it shouldn鈥檛 get in the way of the new start.

鈥淚鈥檓 really looking forward to it,鈥� Mellberg said.