St. Louis CITY SC were able to drive the final nail into the coffin of Inter Miami 1.0 Saturday night, with Tata Martino’s side wholly unable to answer St. Louis’s intensity throughout the match. It was an interesting clash of styles, and under different circumstances, Miami could have been trouble for St. Louis.
However, crucial mistakes continually ruined Miami’s best chances on the night. That’s where CITY’s intensity, and buy-in, showed up in crucial moments.
Countless times, CITY midfielders would track back in time to pick the ball off the foot of a Miami midfielder. It wasn’t the methodical, pick-your-spot soccer that Miami should be capable of under Messi and Tata Martino but instead, a general malaise that allowed CITY’s press to target Miami CBs Kamal Miller and Sergio Kryvtsov.
St. Louis’ aggression was driven by Sam Adeniran, Rasmus Alm, and AZ Jackson’s frenetic running, forcing Miami to rush as they attempted to beat the press.
Miami committed multiple unforced errors throughout the match, simply due to the threat of being rushed on the ball. The press, once again, being CITY’s largest play driver of the night.
Offensively, it wasn’t the prettiest outing by St. Louis standards but any sloppy play can be overlooked by how effective they handled their set-piece play.
That fact wasn’t lost on Bradley Carnell, starting off his press conference, “First off, I’d like to thank Alex Langer, our set piece specialist, for picking up the hat trick tonight.”
St. Louis’ set piece play has been a point of pride this season, scoring 18 of their 43 goals this season from stoppages in play. Saturday’s goals come from stellar delivery via AZ Jackson and Indiana Vassilev, finding Sam Adeniran and Tim Parker as they rose over Miami’s lackluster set piece defending.
Edu Löwen drove home the final nail with a beauty on his return to CITYPARK. Célio Pompeo drove down the pitch before eventually drawing a yellow from Miller, earning a dangerous free-kick opportunity for CITY’s German maestro.
As Löwen stood over the ball, anticipation lingered throughout CITYPARK as he weighed his options. Löwen was candid about his approach after the match, noticing Miami GK Drake Callender cheat to the side of the wall, “I was going to cross it in, but I saw the goalkeeper move to the right, and it looked open for me. Honestly, I thought it was coming back off the crossbar, but luckily it dipped under the bar.”
“What started out to be a fairy tale has become a business.”, Bradley Carnell would say after the match.
A fairy tale made possible by the play of underappreciated players like AZ Jackson. Along with his assist Saturday night, Jackson was everywhere on the pitch, with 43 touches, 18 passes, 1 assist, 3 chances created, 5 recoveries, 2 tackles, and 6 duels won.
It was a celebratory atmosphere after the match as the club will have a few days rest while Tim Parker and Roman Bürki head to the MLS All-Star game. When they return, they’ll start preparing for their Leagues Cup matches against Columbus and Club América.
It’s an opportunity that Bradley Carnell is relishing, “We want to go as far as we possibly can.” His club defying all expectations, as they sit four points clear at the top of the Western Conference.
Check out Area Sports Network on Twitter & Instagram and Subscribe to our YouTube Channel. We just hit 1k subscribers and look to continue to grow the channel. Stay tuned for more content going forward!
