People whose objection to soccer is “it has ties!” need only to have watched or attended Saturday night’s match to realize how silly a stance that is. While the players and technical staff can be disappointed, I frankly thought the result was pretty fair. St. Louis is a very solid defensive team, and had some really good chances to score that we’re lucky didn’t come off. City had some golden chances of their own that they couldn’t convert (what else is new) but that didn’t make the match any less interesting or exciting.
City started another new eleven on Saturday, with Lundt back in goal behind Paco Craig and a rejuvenated Alexis Souahy. Franno and Oscar were in their customary spots, occasionally joining a central midfield of Napo Matsoso and Speedy, with Niall, MAG RAM, and Lucky in the attack behind lone striker Luke. Napo, I should note, has played 90 minutes in three straight games over the span of three days.
For their part, St. Louis played a fairly defensive 4-4-2, kept things pretty direct offensively, and mostly let LouCity have the ball. Keep it they did, to the tune of 63% of the possession in the match. That’s quite a lot, obviously. City attempted 537 passes, which I think is probably a Slugger Field record, and 220 more attempts than St. Louis. They completed 83% of them, probably also a club record, with 72% completed in the opposition half. St. Louis was much less successful, but, again, they weren’t particularly interested in having the ball.
In spite of that paucity of possession, though, the Chupacabras managed to get off ten shots, though just two were on target. City attempted 18 shots, with six on frame. City had 33 touches in St. Louis’s box to STL’s 16. Opta says Morados created 17 scoring chances in the match, which seems a bit high. If we assume, though, that nearly all of those chances turned into shots, then that’s a good thing. St. Louis had nine chances.
Individually, Alexis and Paco both had great days passing, both basically completing 90% of their attempts, and 86% in the opposite half. They were both also about 50% on duels. Paco created two scoring chances. As for the fullbacks, Oscar had the better game, though Francis did just fine. Oscar had a much better passing day, 83% of his 74 attempts completed and won 50% of his duels (mostly against Sean Reynolds). The backs had five chances created between the two of them, however.
Centrally, Napo hit nearly 90% of his passes, and Speedy 80%, though he had 19 more attempts. They both were over 50% on duels. Napo even won a couple in the air, surprising given his height disadvantage. Speedy even managed to take some shots, two of his four on target. They both had three tackles and two interceptions apiece. Napo’s budding partnership with Speedy in Paolo’s absence has been a revelation, really. Since his introduction to the starting lineup, City has actually become able to exercise some control over the midfield, which had previously been um, a problem. Now that Morados can actually keep the ball in the middle of the park, it opens up a lot more scoring chances while keeping the central defenders from getting sucked so far forward. Of course, this could also be due to the fact that Birmingham had no midfield at all, Reading was an amateur team, and St. Louis just didn’t want the ball. But I’m going to choose to look on the bright side here.
The attacking midfield was about what you’d expect at this point in the season. Niall and Magnus’s passing stats are almost identical (36 passes for 83%, 75% in STL’s half), while Lucky’s weren’t as efficient. Niall created five scoring chances but couldn’t find his shooting boots. Lucky put in four tackles. Luke put in a good shift, managed a couple shots and another scoring chance.
It was a good game. City kept a clean sheet, dominated the game, and managed not to lose to a top 3 team in the league who plays effective counter attacking soccer, a known Morados bugaboo. Sure, three points would be preferable, but a draw was fair in my view. Now let’s go ruin James Chamber’s day for the umpteenth time on Sunday.
