ST. LOUIS - It was a Sunday lunchtime start for St. Louis City SC who hosted the Los Angeles Galaxy at CITY PARK this weekend. In a game that City dictated at times, they settled for a 1-1 draw.
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The first half was a rare goalless half for City, who were slow to get going in the first quarter of an hour. Some heavy yet mistimed tackles resulted in fouls early, including one that resulted in a yellow card for City star midfielder Eduard Löwen.
It was a physical affair. What may have been lacking in finishing quality to create goals was matched in each team’s energy on Sunday afternoon.
“It’s the nature of how we play, we are a physical group,” said City head coach Bradley Carnell postgame.
“Giving away fouls breaks the pressure and breaks the momentum of the game and gives the other team a breather. It’s not great that we had guys on yellow cards early on, we had to manage the game a little bit differently.”
Despite the early fouls, and the physical nature of Sunday’s match, Carnell was proud of his team’s performance.
“Just very proud at the way we went at it today,” he said. “Bouncing back from the craziness of Dallas, I thought we got stronger as the match went on.”
City did find their footing and started creating chances in the latter stages of the first half. Several good chances came the way of Jared Stroud in the box, the best being from a lovely cross from midfield teammate Rasmus Alm, but Stroud couldn’t put an effort on goal.
As the halftime whistle blew, City had no goals, but could take solace in the chances they had created. City Red shirts were constantly moving around the Los Angeles 18-yard box, creating chaos, if not goals.
“We needed to be more creative, and I thought we were exactly that today,” Carnell said of City’s offensive approach. “We need to be much more creative and more fluid in the final third.”
St. Louis City’s moment of creative brilliance came in the 68th minute, when midfielder Indiana Vassilev sent a hopeful cross toward City striker Niko Gioacchini in the LA penalty box. Niko stuck his left foot in the air, and flicked Vassilev’s cross over Galaxy goalkeeper Jonathan Bond and into the back of the net.
It took nearly 70 minutes, but City scored the first goal at home again. Usually that had boded well for their hopes of victory.
City had a few more chances to add a second, primarily on a two-on-one break that saw Gioacchini and Vassilev rush toward the Galaxy goal. Vassilev chose to shoot himself instead of feeding Gioacchini, and eventually fired a shot directly at Jonathan Bond.
“I just actually looked back at the chance,” said Vassilev postgame. “And I could have slipped Niko (Gioacchini) through.”
“But it is just one of those games. We look back on it and like you said, we had a lot of chances. And we should have been more clinical and there have been a lot of times this season where we have been clinical. And we put teams to bed. And today it just wasn't clicking enough for us in front of the goal.”
Those missed chances were magnified tenfold when a Jake Nerwinski turnover in defense led to an instant LA Galaxy goal in the 85th minute. Just when it was looking like City had all but clinched three points and another home win, it was 1-1, and CITY PARK had been deflated.
“We are a team and stick together as teammates,” Bradley Carnell said postgame. “We trust Jake (Nerwinski) to make decisions and get out of that. We trust our players, we trust them to make decisions, and we move on.”
After the Galaxy’s late equalizer, City pressed and committed numbers in attack to try to steal the game back, but there was simply not enough time. It’s four straight home matches unbeaten for City, but the fourth will feel more like a loss than a draw.
“A little frustrated, obviously,” said City defender Lucas Bartlett. “We were really solid throughout the entire game, and I thought we had a lot of really good chances to put the game away earlier but things happen in soccer. We take a point and keep moving forward.”
City face a tough test and one of Major League Soccer’s best players in Hany Mukhtar and Nashville SC this coming Saturday. Kickoff in Nashville is set for just after 7:30 p.m.
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