Bradley Carnell was noticeably upbeat in this week’s pre-match press conference ahead of the Vancouver Whitecaps coming to town.
Carnell, along with Jake Nerwinski and Jared Stroud, were sure to mention that the Whitecaps are a playoff team coming off a win at home vs Seattle last week. It was a good week for the Whitecaps as they also punched their ticket to the Canadian Championship final with a win over Pacific FC.
The Whitecaps took both matches seriously, two hard efforts that could wind up benefitting St. Louis this weekend.
Andrés Cubas and Julian Gressel both went the full ninety minutes against Pacific, the second time in a week for Andrés Cubas.
It will be a tired Vancouver squad that have only found three points from their six away games so far this season, facing off against a well rested St. Louis CITY coming off their most emotionally charged two week stretch in the club’s short history.
That isn’t to say that St. Louis won’t be without their own setbacks against the Canadian side, and the potential for a let down is always there.
DP striker João Klauss has been downgraded back to week-to-week, a setback after he had started to rejoin practice last week.
However, Rasmussen Alm is improving a little more rapidly.
“Alm is trending up,” Bradley Carnell would say Thursday afternoon, “I don’t want to commit to anything at this point. Klauss is week-to-week now, he has good days, he has bad days, but it’s important to remember that we aren’t dealing with robots.”
After the drama leading up to last week’s derby, the stakes may not feel as large, but Jake Nerwinski will be sure to have a chip on his shoulder against his former club.
“I don’t miss playing left center-back, that’s for sure.” Nerwinski would joke when asked about if he’s carrying a little something extra heading into Saturday, “I loved my time with the club, spent six years there and I still keep in touch. I was texting with Brian White, he’s a great player but I’m looking forward to shutting him down this weekend.”
Nerwinski is relishing the freedom he’s had under Carnell to bound forward and join the attack, unlocking part of his skill set that was not utilized nearly enough in Vancouver.
It’s the underlying theme with this club, utilizing players in ways that they weren’t in their past stops, and buying in to Bradley Carnell’s overarching principles.
CITY are looking to establish CITYPARK as a fortress, and another dominating win in front of “the best crowd in the entire freaking world” would go a long way toward establishing that home field advantage.