MLS St. Louis City SC

St. Louis CITY SC Comes Up Short Against Chicago Fire FC

May 13, 2023 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
St. Louis City SC News Release


ST. LOUIS - St. Louis CITY SC fell 1-0 to Chicago Fire FC in MLS action at Soldier Field on Saturday afternoon. After an intense, back-and-forth first half, Chicago found the eventual game-winner in the 40th minute through Rafael Czichos who tucked away Xherdan Shaqiri's cross off a freekick.

Postgame Notes

CITY SC's first homegrown signing, 16-year-old Caden Glover made his MLS debut.

Glover became the first player born in 2007 to make his MLS debut

Today's match marked the first time where both of CITY SC's homegrown players Miguel Perez and Glover featured in the same game

CITY SC fielded its 14th different starting lineup across all competitions

Goal-Scoring Plays

CHI - Rafael Czichos (Xherdan Shaqiri),40th minute:Rafael Czichos left footed shot from the right side of the six yard box to the bottom left corner.

Next Game

St. Louis CITY SC returns home to CITYPARK to play against Sporting KC on Saturday, May 20.

May 13, 2023 - Soldier Field (Chicago, IL)

Goals by Half 1 2 F

Chicago Fire FC 1 0 1

St. Louis CITY SC 0 0 0

Scoring Summary

CHI:Rafael Czichos (Xherdan Shaqiri), 40

Misconduct Summary

STL: Miguel Perez (caution), 26

STL: John Nelson (caution), 43

STL: Niko Gioacchini (caution), 49

CHI:Gastón Gimenez (caution), 59

CHI: Fabian Herbers (caution), 64

STL: John Nelson (second caution/ejection), 70

Lineups

CHI:GK Chris Brady; D Arnaud Souquet, D Carlos Teran (Rafael Czichos 34'), D Mauricio Pineda, D Miguel Navarro; M Fabian Herbers (Georgios Koutsias 72') M Gastón Gimenez, M Xherdan Shaqiri ©, M Brian Gutierrez (Jairo Torres 89'), M Federico Navarro; F Kei Kamara (Kacper Przybylko 72')

Substitutes Not Used:GK Spencer Richey, D Kendall Burks, D Alonso Aceves, D Wyatt Omsberg, F Missael Rodriguez

TOTAL SHOTS: 9; SHOTS ON GOAL: 6; FOULS: 13; OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 5; SAVES: 2

STL:GK Roman Bürki ©; D Jake Nerwinski (Jared Stroud 65'), D Lucas Bartlett (Josh Yaro 77'), D Kyle Hiebert, D John Nelson; M Miguel Perez (Njabulo Blom 46'), M Eduard Löwen (Caden Glover 77'), M Indiana Vassilev, M Célio Pompeu, M Tomáš Ostrák (Isak Jensen 64'); F Niko Gioacchini

Substitutes Not Used:D Jon Bell, GK Ben Lundt, M Akil Watts, M Aziel Jackson

TOTAL SHOTS: 9; SHOTS ON GOAL: 2; FOULS: 15; OFFSIDES: 0; CORNER KICKS: 3; SAVES: 5

*All stats here are unofficial

Referee: Filip Dujic

Assistant Referees: Kevin Klinger, Andrew Bigelow

Fourth Official: Jon Freemon

VAR: Kevin Stott

AVAR: Rene Parra

Venue: Soldier Field

Weather: Cloudy, 62 degrees

ST. LOUIS CITY SC POSTGAME QUOTES

Bradley Carnell

Opening Statement: Good afternoon everyone. Yeah, listen, we go twice down to Chicago in a week. Obviously a mixed bag of emotions, mixed bag of feelings because just to see the city of red, the city red flying around in the stadium. It was great to see and first of all, thank you to all those fans who traveled out, you know, it looked like thousands not just hundreds. So thank you for that. We set ambitious objectives for this game and yeah we have a bit of a shaky start but then I think we get control of the game and drive the game and dominate that first half and get derailed by a set piece situation which I mean, it sucks to go down on a set piece situation and then yeah, we have a good start to the second half. Njabulo comes in, you know just solidifies the midfield there. And then we get caught in a moment of desperation with Johnny getting the red card so now we have to improvise a little bit and then again to see the way we push the game with a man down gives me a lot of hope as a coach because it shows this means something to these guys and it means a lot and we emptied the tank and just to see guys who couldn't run anymore and they were trying their best. So to see what it means to them, makes me proud to be their coach because I felt we really push the game at the end and unfortunately, yeah, we just couldn't get the ball in many dangerous moments while we were trying to push that game, but for the most part again, I thought we took a step forward today despite the result.

On the teams offensive situation at the moment and goal drought...

I think it looks different. I think if you acknowledge the fact that you know before the end of the first half, Celió goes on on a breakaway, we earn a little chance, and we've seen the chaos, and he just couldn't finish. On another day he probably slots that one home. You know, we're not blaming anyone, right? We're all in here as a team. But these are moments that define games and these are moments whether it's at the back of the field or at the front of the field that define moments you get the momentum back again. So there's different moments that dictate the tempo and the dynamic and the outcome of the game. So, you know, we're just not finding enough of these moments, right? So we're trying to stay in the chaos. We're trying to keep it going. And you can see for a lot of the game, I thought the pressing was really good. I thought we forced a lot of turnovers. I thought they made a lot of mistakes in terms of the build up play so we're going to capitalize more and we're looking to play quicker through the lines; we're looking to transition quicker. We want to be a little bit more free flowing. So yeah, can we get to those moments to control a counter attack? Can we get to end off a counter attack really quickly. So yeah, for sure it's not optimized or efficient.

On John Nelson's red card play...

Yeah, listen, I stand by my players who defend forwards and are brave, right. So you can't stop in that heat of that fraction for a second to say, Hey, Johnny, don't go and play our way and apply the principles. Yes, you have to apply a little bit of the situation but he just arrived a little bit late, but I fully stand behind my player who tries for the best reasons possible to try and win the ball and win the game for his team. So no blame on anyone.

On what he saw from Njabulo Blom today...

Yeah, listen, he broke up some plays. He's good on the ball and he's brave and he's tenacious in tackles. So you know, we need to get Njabulo minutes and we knew we could progress him at least 45 today. We had a game today where maybe Perez was was on a yellow card and had one or two danger moments at the end of the first half. So from that point of view, I think it was only the right thing. For me, Miggy had a great game in the first half again, and Njabulo just continued in the same fashion. So it shows at the heart of midfield for games coming forward. You know, there's potential now for solid minutes for Njabulo to progress. And the aim is to get him turning up 90s in the next couple of weeks, so, at least we look optimistically with regards to that.

Roman Bürki

On if he felt like the team played much better today than on Tuesday...

No, I'm far away from being happy about performance today. I mean, we had almost no real chance to score a goal. They had a lot. We started the game like the game last Tuesday, just not ready. They had the two good chances in the Cup game and they scored in the first minute. It was not perfect and also not a really bad performance but it's just not good enough and that is not our standard.

On how the team can stay positive throughout these moments...

I mean, you know it's just a game. We are aware of what we can do better. Of course we talk with each other, we are very open and straightforward. So we are not like trying to to talk something good that isn't so. We just had a meeting right now after the game and we had a chat about the game and now we have two days off. And I think after that we will analyze the game again with video meetings and try to get better every day.

On how he thought the backline performed today...

It was decent, to be honest. Of course, the whole team was sleeping in the first minutes. They were not ready to step from my point of view. I thought to be honest Shaqiri was going to shoot. It's a perfect position for him and I know him he has a really good shot, so I was surprised too that he crossed the ball. But I mean at the end it's the line where we have to be aware of that. It cannot happen that a guy who's strong in the air is all by himself.

Check out the St. Louis City SC Statistics



Major League Soccer Stories from May 13, 2023


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