CITY heads west tomorrow night to try to exorcise some demons at "Please Sponsor Our Stadium" Park in another weekday derby match. Get the scoop on their opponent with our Matchday Preview and a look into their numbers. https://stlsoccernews.com/were-st-louis-city-who-are-you-8-19-26/
And if you don't feel like reading through all that, here's a summary - they suck.
Finally, in what the LEGO movie referred to as the "Piece of Resistance", Simon Becher's second goal to put this one to bed for CITY in yet another win in San Jose, a place they've never failed to win.
A great quick restart by Timo finds Totland making a long run upfield, marked by San Jose's Jack Jasinski. The ball ticks off Jasinski's head, towards the left side of the box and a completely immobile Quakes GK Angus Gunn - why Gunn chose to retreat rather than make a play on the ball was confusing live and even moreso on further review. Could he have beaten Totland to the ball? Probably not a 100% guarantee, but most likely a play he should have tried to make.
Regardless, Totland gathers the ball, Jasinski stops his momentum instead of closing down Totland completely, and Tots flips a nice cross to Becher, who had called for the ball and split San Jose's Jamar Ricketts (#2) and Reid Roberts (#18), catching them both ball watching. This was especially egregious from Ricketts, who had Becher in front of him and simply stopped moving, allowing Simon to make a very nice play.
This was a difficult finish that Becher did a fantastic job on, full credit to him, and CITY finished a statement match with a convincing 3-1 win.
San Jose's goal last night also doesn't need much analysis, as sometimes a dude just makes a really nice play, you tip your cap, and you move on.
Beau Leroux takes Timo's contested attempt at a clearance header of a Timo Werner free kick one-time and hammers it past Roman Bürki. A very difficult shot, especially from a completely stationary position, which Leroux executed perfectly.
Sure, maybe you could take issue with no CITY defender closing down on Leroux, but given the positioning and momentum that had carried all of them towards goal, it's doubtful any CITY player could have meaningfully disrupted what was just a really nice strike from Leroux.
Not a ton of analysis required on CITY's second goal last night, a header from Simon Becher off an Eduard Löwen corner. A beautifully curved ball from CITY's #10 finds Becher alone in space in the box, a result of some very poor marking by San Jose.
Becher is bracketed by Daniel Munie (#5) and Reid Roberts (#18), but as the ball is struck, Munie ball watches and Roberts is caught in-between, with a slight movement towards Dante Polvara but not nearly enough to contest Becher, who gives Munie a slight push to clear space and is all alone for the header.
Pretty simple - nice cross, nice header, and poor marking equals a 2-0 CITY lead.
A convincing road win in San Jose last night runs CITY's unbeaten streak into double digits. Let's look at how the scoring started: a Daniel Edelman goal in the 8th minute.
Sang-bin receives Durkin's pass out on the wing, and while the ball is travelling, Wallem begins his run and calls for the pass as he clears into space. An excellent read of where the Quakes defenders were and the empty area on the right side of the box.
Wallem's run splits the two SJ players, and Sang-bin delivers a perfectly weighted ball into space that Wallem crucially allows to run past instead of stopping the ball directly. This enabled him to continue running as the ball passed, putting himself in an attacking position instead of receiving the ball directly with momentum carrying him away from goal.
Wallem then runs onto and gathers the ball, makes a very nice cutback, and spots Edelman making a run towards goal. His marker, Ronaldo Vieira, stopped moving and began ball watching, which, when combined with the movement of the other Quakes defenders, created a passing lane for Wallem.
Wallem's pass is on the mark, and Edelman holds himself up just enough to angle himself correctly to slot it home for a 1-0 CITY lead. An excellent play by Wallem to create this scoring chance.
CITY is back on Saturday against a San Jose club looking to regain its early-season form. Get the scoop on the Quakes with our Matchday Preview, and for more info, check out Quake Epicenter, Ted Ramey, and Tectonic Takes.
CITY leveled on a terrible mistake from RSL. Noel Caliskan played the ball back to GK Rafael Cabral, who had Philip Quinton available to his right (but who was marked by Becher). JSB was closing down on Cabral at an angle that made a pass to Samuel Junqua on the left impossible.
Instead, and probably inspired by Caliskan calling for the ball as he retreated towards his own end, Cabral played the ball centrally - intended for Caliskan but cut off by a charging Marcel Hartel, who began sprinting the moment Caliskan raised his hand in asking for the ball to be played back to him.
Hartel cuts in front, lets his momentum carry him and the ball away from Caliskan and flips it over Cabral to tie the match 1-1. Great read and reaction from Hartel to create the turnover and goal.
Last night's 1-1 draw with RSL saw some excellent sustained pressure from CITY but ultimately left the fans disappointed with only getting a point at home. Let's look first at RSL's goal from Sergi Solans.
RSL's Noel Caliskan collects the clearance by Baumgartl in the center of the pitch and heads upfield. You probably would have wanted Polvara to step to Caliskan to close the 30ft gap and cut down passing angles, but he didn't (a rare mistake from Polvara, who was otherwise awesome this match - especially in shutting down Luna completely).
Caliskan's entry pass found Saba Lobjanidze, who did a lovely job of holding the ball and rotating away from MacNaughton and Baumgartl. At that moment, his passing options were a backheel to Luna, who was all alone on the left, or a more difficult pass towards a cutting Solans.
Lobjanidze showed fantastic skill here, as he made a flicked pass around MacNaughton into the path of Solans, who had beaten Tomas Totland - Totland slowed up for just a split second as Lobjanidze received the ball, allowing Solans the inside space to make his run.
From here, Bürki is kind of in no-man's land - he reacts to the Lobjanidze pass, but you wonder if he even saw Solans cutting from his left - an onrushing Luna was more visible in front of him. Unfortunately for CITY, Solans made a nice play on the ball, cutting around Bürki and sliding it home.
CITY's hot streak is put to the test as RSL comes to town on Saturday. Get the data on the visitors from Utah with our Matchday Preview, "We're St. Louis CITY... Who Are You?", and for more RSL info, check out our RSL Content Creators.
As always, check out soccerdatavizer.com for more information on MLS and NWSL clubs.
https://reddit.com/link/1v76l4z/video/tchxn7mtalfh1/player
It took longer than it probably should have against a 10-man Colorado last night, but CITY finally broke through in the 83rd minute. Let's take a look at Tomáš Ostrák's match winner.
CITY had spent much of the match making short passes around the top of the penalty area, which wasn't all that effective in opening up space against a Rapids side that was defending quite well and limited high danger chances. On this play, however, Timo plays a nice switched diagonal to Totland, who tracks the ball well.
Totland's movement towards the ball carried Colorado's Noah Cobb with him, leaving space behind that Ostrák occupied but neither Paxten Aaronson (#10) or Rafael Navarro (#9) immediately rotated into. Hard to blame either for a lack of quick movement on a brutally hot evening after defending for 70+ minutes down a man, but that lack of rotation left Ostrák all alone to receive Totland's excellent header back into space.
From there, Ostrák took a touch to settle the ball and then hit a beautifully weighted shot that cleared Colorado GK Nico Hansen, banged off the inside of the far post and bounced in, giving CITY the 1-0 lead and another 3 points. It was a fantastic shot created by a really nice switched ball and header that saved CITY from what would have been a frustrating draw.
CITY looks to continue their unbeaten streak tomorrow night as Colorado comes to town. Get the data on the Rapids with our Matchday Preview, "We're St. Louis CITY... Who Are You?", and for more Colorado Rapids info, check out our Rapids Content Creators.
https://reddit.com/link/1v4ela7/video/drg9nszeizeh1/player
LA did get a consolation prize late in the match, with Troy Elgersma picking up his first ever MLS goal. Jaziel Orozco found himself in a bad spot along the sideline, surrounded by 4 Galaxy defenders. He had a split second to pass out of trouble to an open Daniel Edelman, but wasn't able to pick out Edelman in time and turned the ball over.
LA's Harbor Miller turned upfield, beating Durkin and nutmegging a rotating Timo Baumgartl. Durkin looked like he wanted to take the foul, but up 3-0 there was really no reason to risk taking a yellow here.
Polvara, the last CITY defender, moved to close off Miller but his deflection bounced off Durkin right to Elgersma, who hit it first time past an outstretched Roman Bürki, closing out the scoring in a 3-1 CITY road win.
Did Orozco over-dribble and get into a bad spot? Yes. Did Timo get undressed here? Yes. Did CITY get a bit unlucky with the deflection? Yes.
Credit where it's due, however - Miller showed good speed and Elgersma's shot was perfectly placed. But in the 86th minute, up 3 goals, you can excuse a bit of a defensive breakdown/mishap in this case.
https://reddit.com/link/1v4eagu/video/ngqwxx6mgzeh1/player
CITY picked up an insurance goal from Simon Becher, who shook off a couple of high-danger missed chances earlier to convert on a breakaway and give St. Louis a 3-0 advantage.
A nice one-on-one defensive play by Polvara, who stepped to challenge a poor touch by LA's Harbor Miller. Polvara's pass to Santos was one-touched to Durkin, who then one-touched it to Hartel.
Hartel turned to see Becher beginning his run upfield, and he played a perfectly weighted ball to the CITY #9 which split Galaxy defenders Julián Aude and Justin Haak. Becher outpaced both and plays a nice flicked shot over the top of JT Marcinkowski for his second goal of the year.
This was exactly what a good counterattack does - take a turnover and quickly go the other way with it to create chances. 2 one-touch passes, Hartel's vision and Becher's run all combined for a really nice 3rd goal from CITY.
https://reddit.com/link/1v4e0gs/video/mgtew3hkezeh1/player
CITY's 2nd goal came off what was seemingly a nothing play from Tomas Totland and Marcel Hartel in stoppage time of the first half. Nice interplay between Totland and Hartel here, as Totland's movement after his pass created space behind himself for Hartel to dribble into.
Despite 4 Galaxy defenders immediately between Hartel and the goal, none of them stepped to him, and Hartel's horizontal movement towards the center of the pitch kept enough space to shoot.
His shot wrong-footed Galaxy keeper JT Marcinkowski in goal just as he had moved slightly left, leaving him frozen and unable to dive back to his right. Hartel's strike dipped over the makeshift Galaxy defensive line and gave CITY a 2-0 advantage.
https://reddit.com/link/1v4dpov/video/0vniyiugczeh1/player
CITY kept the positive momentum rolling last night in LA, topping the Galaxy 3-1. Let's take a look at the night's opening goal, a Lukas MacNaughton header off a corner from Marcel Hartel.
As MacNaughton begins his run, he's marked by LA's Justin Haak, but he runs Haak directly into the back of the Galaxy's #5 Jakob Glesnes. Glesnes' stationary position causes Haak to have to cut inside to try to get around his teammate, losing MacNaughton in the process.
The other Galaxy defender at the top of the 6 yard box is Marco Reus, who is slow to react as MacNaughton moves past him and into a perfect position to rise and angle a header which banks off the far post and in.
Nice movement by MacNaughton, a well-placed corner from Hartel, and a subpar lack of movement from the Galaxy all added up to a great chance which MacNaughton turned into an excellent headed goal and a 1-0 lead for CITY.
CITY hits the road tomorrow night to take on a much different LA Galaxy side looking to rebound after a 3-0 El Trafico loss to LAFC. Get the breakdown on the Galaxy with our Matchday Preview "We're St. Louis CITY - Who Are You"
https://stlsoccernews.com/were-st-louis-city-who-are-you-07-22-26/
For more on the Galaxy, be sure to check out our Galaxy content creators page featuring at https://stlsoccernews.com/club-content-creators-lag/
Before anyone comments - I just realized I marked all these as 7/17 instead of 7/16 - I'll shake off that rust and be better next week I hope!
https://reddit.com/link/1uz4yly/video/4tczik51jtdh1/player
Well I could save a lot of virtual ink and just say "OOF" on this one, but here goes.
As is apparently in his contract with kansas, Dejan Joveljic gets his obligatory goal against CITY last night to tie it up via an absolute disaster of a pass from Ben Lundt.
Lundt has a couple options here, none more simple than laying the ball off to a retreating Lucas MacNaughton, who is moving into space out to Lundt's right and has no defenders near him.
Instead, Lundt attempt a pass up the middle to Miguel Perez which is cut off by SKC's Manu García (nice read and even nicer flicked pass by him, credit where it's due) and from there it's an inevitable goal.
Just a bad mistake that fortunately didn't prevent CITY from grabbing all 3 points at home. Not much more to say here - except let's not do that again, Ben.
https://reddit.com/link/1uz4ju4/video/j8ebwsvggtdh1/player
It wasn't all sunshine and roses last night, as Capita's goal just before halftime got kansas back in it. After an initial turnover, CITY is in a pretty decent defensive shape, but Totland is slow and/or hesitant to close down on the Angolan forward, leaving far too much space.
Capita rips a very nice shot to the upper left corner that Ben Lundt just gets his fingertips to, but it's not enough to prevent the shot from finding the back of the net.
Not much to say here, you do wonder if Totland was worried a bit too much about Capita beating him off the dribble- but ultimately, you have to acknowledge that it was just a hell of a strike from Capita.