In the end, Saturday went about as well as it could have for Louisville City. Lots of teams ahead of Morados in the table dropped points or just lost altogether, no one in white and gold got injured or shown a card of any color, and the Kings Cup once again made the trip back home to Louisville after City took three points away at St. Louis.
John Hackworth rolled with mostly the same lineup in this match as he has in the past several of LouCity’s unbeaten streak. Pat McMahon’s injury against the Rowdies last week was apparently enough to keep him off the team sheet entirely. However instead of starting Shaun Francis on the left and moving Oscar Jimenez to right back, Hack decided to let El Mago stay in his preferred LB role and plug in 19-year old Akil Watts for his first start at RB for LouCity.
While the lineup changed very little in this game, there were a few tweaks I noticed in terms of game plan that were interesting. Often times I saw Speedy Williams or even Napo Matsoso drop all the way into the middle of the back line between Paco Craig and Sean Totsch to try and start possession out of the back. Offensively, City tried to pull STLFC’s back line high enough that they could either send diagonal balls from the fullbacks over the top to Hoppenot or Ownby, or try to get the ball to the goal line and cross them in to one of the front three.
It was pretty effective, especially in the first half. City enjoyed 68% of the possession, attempted 351 passes, six shots (two on frame), and scored the game’s only goal before 45′.
St. Louis manager Anthony “Not Tony” Pulis addressed his team’s defensive and possessory frailties after halftime by throwing in a fifth midfielder and leaving just one striker on top. While the move did stop the bleeding a little in terms of possession, Morados still had 57% possession in the second half, the same number of shots (none on frame, though), and completed almost the same percentage of passes in the second 45.
Obviously, desperate, STL took more risks in the second period and generated six shots after just two in the first half. They forced Chris Hubbard into one of his best saves yet after a Tyler Blackwood header in the 76′. I haven’t said nearly enough about Hubbard this season but he is absolutely a massive part of City’s now-ten-game unbeaten streak.
I was really impressed with City’s execution on set plays, few though there were. You could tell Danny Cruz had scouted St. Louis’s defending on corners and free kicks really well, as there were a couple of chances on either side of the break for City to double their lead if not for an inch here or there on the finishes. I’m looking forward to seeing more of that, especially tomorrow against Nashville.
Let’s dig in a little deeper to some numbers.
LouCity attempted 658 passes in the game, which (not going to actually look) is probably the most they’ve attempted in 90 minutes all season. They completed 84% of those passes, also a season-high, and 75.5% in St. Louis’s half, which is really good – especially when STL was trying to clog the midfield in the second period.
Shooting accuracy wasn’t great on the night (12 shots, 2 on frame), but one went in and that’s the one that matters.
Individually, Hoppenot and Ownby definitely kept the STL defense on their toes but neither managed to find pay dirt. Ownby had three shots and Toine had one, to go with one chance created. To be fair, their job in this game was to get on the end of crosses and through-balls rather than hold the ball up for someone else, and they both put in strong shifts given their instructions.
I liked what I saw from Akil Watts on the right, save one play in the first half where he got torched by Bradley Kamdem Fewo in a 1v1. Not much later, he put in a fabulous through-ball that put Ownby in on goal, and sent in the initial cross that had led to Magnus’s goal earlier in the match. Watts played pretty high for most of the game, it seemed, and was part of what created so much width for LouCity in possession. He was pretty conservative under pressure, but at this point, that’s kind of what I want to see on that side of the field. While I’d like to see him improve his defensive chops a little, I thought it was generally a good performance and 87 minutes for the new guy.
Paco and Totsch were rock-solid. Oscar was probably the best player on the field on the night. Speedy and Napo were humming, and Magnus made the most of his limited opportunities. Williams has really taken ownership of the “DelPiccolo” role in the midfield – he was an absolute metronome in the back. Rasmussen quietly had one of his better passing performances all season, and did some pretty good defensive work to boot. Niall was a little bottled up, but had a similar night to Rasmussen in my book.
It was a good performance from our Morados, and they did their job. Now to sleep for 48 hours in a hyperbaric chamber so they can do it all again tomorrow in Nashville. That’s a big, big match all of the sudden – which I’ll get to tomorrow in the March to the Match. For now, savor the fifth-straight Kings Cup win a little longer, and then dial up the crazy for the 615. VAMOS MORADOS.
