St. Louis CITY SC was always going to be fighting an uphill battle in their 2-1 loss to the Portland Timbers Saturday night from CITYPARK. João Klauss’ injury in Colorado meant that Bradley Carnell would need to be creative in crafting an attack around Nico Gioacchini.
In retrospect, it was a big ask.
Gioacchini has had a great start to his life in St. Louis, but the magic just wasn’t there Saturday night, “You look at Gio’s levels at the half and his running was through the roof, but maybe he was trying to do too much and we just needed a different look”, Bradley Carnell would say after the match.
Gioacchini’s lack of production was certainly an issue but it was more of a symptom of the attack’s inability to find him in the attack. Gioacchini only had twenty touches on the ball, and while that led to three passes into the final third, he didn’t create any chances or register a shot on goal.
Gioacchini’s success this year has largely come from his chemistry with Klauss, and his ability to play off of Klauss’ shoulder. As a lone striker, he was the main target of Portland’s back line, and his spacing with Löwen was ineffective as Löwen pushed up the field throughout the first half.
Portland, to their credit, successfully slowed things down and frustrated the young St. Louis side, “Credit to Portland, they wanted it more, it pains me to say that.”, Carnell would continue.
Portland did a great job setting up play in a way that limited St. Louis’ progression through the middle of the pitch. St. Louis wingers, Rasmus Alm, and Jared Stroud, played more as inside forwards than outright wingers, with Full Backs, John Nelson and Jake Nerwinski, providing the width in the attack.
Portland would cede that width as well, but CITY players couldn’t quite crack the Timbers’ backline.
Portland Strikes First
The Timbers’ started the second half by putting St. Louis under immense pressure. After generating just 0.10 xG in the first half, Portland would make inroads into the St. Louis defense.
Tim Parker and Kyle Hiebert did a great job bandying away Portland’s attempts early but as Portland Midfielder Evander grew into the match, he would force John Nelson into making a crucial mistake.
Nelson would try to make a play on the ball but would end up falling and inadvertently handling the ball, resulting in a penalty for Portland.
“I don’t think it was a PK, I don’t think my hands were out of position, but I need to go back and watch it”, Nelson would plead his case after the match. However, with the penalty confirmed, Evander would slot the ball past Roman Bürki on the penalty and successfully put St. Louis on the back foot.
The call absolutely impacted what St. Louis was trying to accomplish in this match, Tim Parker wasn’t ready to accept the excuse though, “Something like that happens and you have to battle your psyche, we came back and scored, that was great, but then we got away from our game.”
Changes Would Have to be Made
Tomáš Ostrák would come on for eighteen year old Miggy Perez, Perez had played well in his second straight start but he was the odd man out as Löwen dropped back into the double pivot.
Carnell would take some time in his post-match comments to reflect on Perez’s play, “We know that Miggy is a young guy and he needs these experiences, any judgment of Miggy – we know it’s not going to be a perfect game, but he’s combative, he’s feisty. We want him to play freely and not overthink things.”
St. Louis would also change the attack, Célio and Aziel Jackson would enter the match replacing Jared Stroud and Nico Gioacchini. The change had an almost instant impact on the run of play.
Bradley Carnell can at least walk away from this week knowing what he has in the pair of young attackers. The chemistry shown in Tuesday’s USOC win was on full display again as the attack came to life.
St. Louis would equalize after driving down the pitch through quick passing and dynamic movement. The equalizer comes after Ostrák finds himself hugging the endline, finding a charging Célio for his first MLS goal.
The goal comes after intense pressure inside Portland’s half, but that progress would be unraveled as the Timbers found the eventual match-winner moments later.
“I just don’t get it, we score a goal, and then we just turn off”, Eduard Löwen would lament after the match, “Portland just played a dirty game today, they time wasted, they took advantage of us chasing the game, that’s on us, we let them in the game”
Löwen’s point is apt, Portland dictated their terms and St. Louis played right into their game plan. It’s the type of loss that this team should teach this club a few things. These are the types of games that make Portland a perennially dangerous team and the type of game that CITY will need to be prepared for as teams start to figure out how to plan against them.
Bradley Carnell won’t be happy with that performance, nor should he be, but being down one of your two Designated Players was always going to be trouble for the club. The refereeing didn’t bail the club out as officials never saw any “clear and obvious errors” that required VAR despite the club’s calls for it on multiple occasions throughout the match. Carnell was understandably angry given the lack of transparency around the decisions, but won’t be using it as an excuse, “If I have to start worrying about the referees and their decisions… there are many ways that we lost this game.”
He can at least be happy with what they’ve found in Célio, Ostrák, and Aziel Jackson this week. Reinforcements will arrive, but until then… it’ll be a tough week of practice for St. Louis CITY SC. Célio, for his part, would sum up the performance succinctly, “We didn’t deserve to win, that’s it”.
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