St. Louis CITY SC knew what they needed do to this weekend, strike first in the inaugural derby with Sporting Kansas City, and play “their style of game”. The rivalry with Kansas City may not be historic in MLS terms, but much like Chicago last week, there is lingering bad blood, and the players understood the assignment.
Indiana Vassilev spoke to the job after the match, “Our fans are such a big part of us and they really contribute to how we play. We heard it was a rivalry, we heard that they didn’t like SKC so we don’t like SKC.”
For all of the hype before the match, St. Louis rose to the occasion early.
A defensive 4-1-3-2 formation would trap SKC deep in their own half and generally, St. Louis was much more engaged in their pressing compared to the past few weeks.
Tactically, it was a great switch from manager Bradley Carnell.
With Njabulo Blom healthy and fully fit, the formation allowed him to stand strong as the lone six, a defensive stopper that racked up four interceptions, seven recoveries, and won four of his 1v1 duels. Blom was immense all night, even throwing a crushing tackle that would eventually lead to the first of Indiana Vassilev’s two goals.
“I was just following our principles from training, when the ball is there, pushing up a bit, and just following our principles.”, Blom would say after the match.
St. Louis would strike first but it seems fitting that the first important moment of this rivalry was a controversial penalty shout in the 19th minute.
The penalty comes off some nice interchange between Nico Gioacchini and Vassilev that saw Vassilev go down in the box. In retrospect, it wasn’t the strongest penalty shout, and while VAR confirmed the call, it is another instance of iffy MLS officiating.
Edu Löwen stepped up and easily slotted the ball past SKC Goalkeeper, Kendall McIntosh.
St. Louis would ramp up the pressure from there.
Indiana Vassilev would score his first of the season after Stroud found him in the box from a disruptive Blom tackle in SKC’s midfield.
Vassilev’s inclusion higher up the pitch could be seen as a reward for his recent play, Vassilev turning into a player who can contribute no matter what Carnell asks of him.
“The goals felt good, but I’m just happy to contribute to the team in this way, scoring, assisting, or just being in the right position, I’m down to do whatever they ask of me”, Vassilev would say after the match.
St. Louis would carry their 2-0 lead into the half, and while SKC would adjust, St. Louis were happy as they absorbed the pressure and took advantage of Kansas City stretching the field as they chased a goal.
This is where xG doesn’t tell the full story, SKC controlled possession throughout the second half, but it was clearly by design as St. Louis attempted to free Gioacchini against the run of play.
KC’s additions of Thommy and Ndembe seemed to make a difference but St. Louis would again strike first in the half. A 55th minute chip by Nico Gioacchini would beat a Kansas City defense completely caught out by Gioacchini’s blazing run, a look that was responsible for more than one opportunity as St. Louis attempted to seal the match.
A fourth goal would come soon after as the game became more of a complete disaster for SKC.
A newly inserted Tomás Ostrák would find Vassilev near the edge of the box, and a gorgous curling shot would beat McIntire for the fourth and final time.
For their part, SKC wouldn’t go quietly into their goodnight but despite their best efforts, an energized Roman Būrki would keep his clean sheet with some spectacular saves.
“It’s no secret that we haven’t had a clean sheet in seven matches”, Bradley Carnell would say as he kicked off his post match availability, “We needed that much more than we needed the result.”
It was a fascinating display from Carnell who took some gambles with his lineup.
DP striker João Klauss would be held out after resuming training this week, and Kyle Hiebert would be dispatched as a Left Back for the first time.
In hindsight, the Hiebert call was crucial in stifling the creativity of SKC winger Johnny Russel, and Hiebert even created a scoring chance off his passes from deeper in the midfield.
It speaks to Carnell’s belief in his guys, and in his player’s abilities to play positionless soccer.
Carnell is not afraid to leave himself open to criticism if his roster gambles don’t work out, but in this case, in a rivalry match, his convictions have to commended.
It would have been easy to overthink a matchup like this, especially when the crowd at CITYPARK was the loudest that it has ever been, but Carnell’s men were ready for the occasion.
The players would speak at length to how they were prepared to rise to the occasion.
It helps that CITY have two players from the Kansas City area on the roster in Lucas Bartlett and Nico Gioacchini.
Gioacchini even took some time to expand on how personal he took the match, “I came to this game to do what I do best and take no prisoners. You know, they had a chance to take me when I was young, and they didn’t so it felt pretty good to score tonight.”
The local connections run deep in this squad, Sporting Director Lutz Pfannenstiel making a point to mention Miggy Perez and, newly promoted, Johnny Klein in his post match comments as well.
“To bring Johnny Klein up, that shows what we’re trying to do. There’s big names flying out there, Roberto Firmino and other names, but Klein is a local kid and seeing him debut in front of those fans. We’re trying to give local kids a chance.”
Those connections are what makes fans so rabid for CITY’s success, and the bragging rights will surely make the discourse engaging ahead of the return matchup in Kansas later this summer.
One thing is for sure, the players understand the importance.
“St. Louis CITY, soccer capital of the US” – Indiana Vassilev