MLS St. Louis City SC

St. Louis CITY SC Falls 3-0 to Seattle Sounders

Published on April 9, 2023 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
St. Louis City SC News Release


ST. LOUIS - St. Louis CITY SC falls for the first time on the road this season, after giving up three second half goals to Seattle Sounders. Despite a strong first half, CITY SC were overpowered by Seattle, who moved to first place in the Western Conference following tonight's win.

First Away Defeat of the Season

Prior to tonight's match, St. Louis CITY SC were a perfect 3-0-0 on the road this season. Though CITY SC had a strong first half performance they were unable to find a response to Seattle's three second half goals.

Additional Notes

St. Louis CITY SC were kept off the scoresheet for the second straight game.

Tonight's lineup was the seventh different starting lineup fielded by St. Louis CITY SC.

Prior to tonight's match, CITY SC had not given up a goal in the run of play in over 425 minutes.

Goal-Scoring Plays

SEA - Joshua Atencio (Nicolás Lodeiro), 65th minute: Joshua Atencio right footed shot from outside the box to the top right corner.

SEA - Raúl Ruidíaz, 71st minute: Raúl Ruidíaz right footed shot from very close range to the bottom left corner.

SEA - Jake Nerwinski (Own goal), 89th minute: Own goal by Jake Nerwinski.

Next Game

St. Louis CITY SC are back at CITYPARK next Saturday for their match against FC Cincinnati.

Seattle Sounders (5-1-1, 16 pts) vs. St. Louis CITY SC (5-2-0, 15 pts)

April 8, 2023 - Lumen Field (Seattle, Washington)

Goals by Half 1 2 F

Seattle Sounders 0 3 3

St. Louis CITY SC 0 0 0

Scoring Summary:

SEA: Joshua Atencio (Nicolás Lodeiro), 65

SEA: Raúl Ruidíaz, 71

SEA: Jake Nerwinski (own goal), 89

Misconduct Summary:

STL: Lucas Bartlett (caution), 6

SEA: Yéimar Gómez (caution), 37

STL: Tim Parker (caution), 84

Lineups:

SEA:GK Stefan Frei; D Nouhou, D Alex Roldán (Héber 82'), D Jackson Ragen, D Yéimar Gómez; M Cristian Roldan, M Nicolás Lodeiro ©, M Albert Rusnák, M Léo Chú (Raúl Ruidíaz60'), M Joshua Atencio (Obed Vargas 90'); F Jordan Morris

Substitutes Not Used: M Ethan Dobbelaere, F Fredy Montero, D Xavier Arreaga, M Sota Kitahara, GK Stefan Cleveland

TOTAL SHOTS: 12; SHOTS ON GOAL: 6; FOULS: 6; OFFSIDES: 3; CORNER KICKS: 8; SAVES: 2

STL:GK Roman Bürki ©; D Jake Nerwinski, D John Nelson, D Kyle Hiebert, D Lucas Bartlett (Isak Jensen 74'), D Tim Parker; M Eduard Löwen (Tomáš Ostrák 74'), M Indiana Vassilev, M Miguel Perez (Njabulo Blom 64') (Célio Pompeu 78'); F João Klauss, F Nicholas Gioacchini (Samuel Adeniran 74')

Substitutes Not Used:D Josh Yaro, M Jared Stroud, D Selmir Pidro, GK Ben Lundt

TOTAL SHOTS: 9; SHOTS ON GOAL: 2; FOULS: 10; OFFSIDES: 0; CORNER KICKS: 3; SAVES: 4

Referee: Rubiel Vazquez

Assistant Referees: Michael Barwegen, Ben Pilgrim

Fourth Official: Mike Rottersman

VAR: Edvin Jurisevic

AVAR: Cameron Blanchard

Venue: Lumen Field

Weather: Cloudy, 54 degrees

ST. LOUIS CITY SC POSTGAME QUOTES

Audio of the interviews can be found here.

BRADLEY CARNELL

On his initial thoughts regarding the match...

Yeah, listen, I thought -- obviously a three-nil score line is never easy to accept and thought largely very flattering result. You know, we took a lot in the weekend, we absorbed a lot of information. We know there's a big threat, coming to Lumen Field and to face Seattle, and I thought yeah, 65 minutes long was an excellent performance from us and we get derailed and hinged, you know, from a world class goal with Atencio. So yeah, we try and make a play, we might try make a push and for the last 20, 25 minutes went away a little bit from our principles, of which, you know, we have to find ways to stay in the game. We have to find ways to fight through and suffer together and find solutions. So, from that point of view, congrats to Brian, we know there's a powerhouse coming here to Seattle. But we don't take this loss lightly. You know, there's a lot of good things to look at and a lot of poor things to look at. So yeah, excited to see now our response, excited to see how the boys take information, excited how we stay together as a group and get through this. I mean, yeah, it's unfortunate, and we move on and tomorrow's a new day.

On having three center backs in the initial formation...

I mean, obviously, looking at a lot of video and looking at a lot of opponents, who's played who and looking at the form of our backline, it made a lot of sense for many, many reasons. And I think you could see in the first half what those reasons were and why we chose to do what we did. So, you know, another mature performance from us in terms of taking on and absorbing new information and being really difficult in that first half to play against. We hit the upright, you know, with Klauss and Klauss has another header and that was -- if you go into the halftime at one-zero and then the game looks slightly different, right. You don't, and then you get kind of chasing. So yeah, there was a bit of a momentum shift, and then we get derailed from the plan with the goal from Ruidiaz. So, credit to them, they stuck to it. It's a tough team to play against and for many for many ways, or for many minutes, the game plan, I thought, was a good one.

On if he thought Seattle was out-running them in the second half...

Yeah, I mean, I think as we know, Seattle is a team that can weigh you down. So, I mean, I don't say we got worn down, but I felt that we lost our way a little bit in our principles, Tom. So, when that starts to get away from us, we know we don't rely on one player, we rely on the team to function because we know that we have to be a lot more connected. We know we have to be a lot more compact. And yeah, when players don't start, you know, applying those principles or being true to them, then spaces and gaps appear. They put Ruidiaz, shift out Morris to the left and then it becomes even one more step stronger. Then you put Heber on. So yeah, they're very flexible, very fluid and they have a lot of depth off the bench. So yeah, it's a great learning moment for us to see, you know, when you go away from home, and if you don't, you know, stick to your principles and play against teams like this -- yeah, that's the result, and we can't just solve the problems by playing the beautiful game and trying to think that we can possess a lot of the ball, of which I know we didn't. But yeah, we have to work a lot harder than that.

On how he felt Miguel Perez played today...

Oh, yeah, sure. No, I thought he was good. I mean, a couple of nervy touches early on in the first half. And yeah, we knew the demands of the game are going to grow. So yeah, we know -- or we felt -- that we have a lot of good weapons off the bench. And yeah, it's just unfortunate that Njabulo -- I'm not sure what happened with him. I haven't spoken to the medical guys yet. And then we have to make another sub. So again, it's another game plan or another part of the game plan that gets derailed. So, you know, a bunch of things went against us today, and we've got to find ways to fight back and be a little bit more resilient and be a little bit more combative in these times of need or times of desperation. And yeah, credit to them. Listen, I mean, we can't take away you know, what, what their staff and whatever saying like 'Really good game, guys.' You know what I'm saying? So, they've seen a really good team, come here and push them. If the game was 60 minutes long. I think we win on points, you know what I mean. If it was a boxing fight, I think we win on points. And then after that, I think the game goes in a different way. So two phases, and I leave with two different emotions here.

On what he thought prevented the team from getting more shots on target...

Yeah, because of the sort of stature of the way we went about the game plan to try and mitigate their strengths, obviously in transition, you know, maybe it's just they're staying on the ball a little bit longer. We had our strikers a little bit more distant from another. So, when we turn over the ball, you know, we need a lot more support and runs from then Johnny Nelson or Jake Nerwinski. So yeah, we needed a lot of maybe a little earlier crosses, runs in the box, you know. So, yeah, there were just a couple of things that I thought we did really, really well. The ball that Gioacchini gets a cross off to Klauss and Klauss gets a shot off near post in the first half, hits the uprights. So Gioacchini stays on the ball, wins his one-v-one, creates a bit of separation and then gives us time to get players in the box. So, you know, that was for the most part the game plan and yeah, obviously you see two shots on target and that's probably one of the outliers in the season so far, where we don't get that many shots. So again, for something to go away from home, something's got to give, something's got to take, you know. So it's a bit of a give and take relationship. And like I said, for the most part, yeah, it was a decent performance, I would say, with and without the ball for the first 60 minutes, 65 minutes.

On if it is a tougher loss than losing to Minnesota...

No, I don't think so. I don't leave here full of joy and encouragement. I mean, for sure. I leave here thinking we've gone a very mature performance, you know, in many ways. So, you know, I leave here thinking we can be adaptable. We can be, you know, fluid and flexible with our approach and we can, you know, stick to a game plan. But you can speak about formation, you can speak about relationships, you can speak about, you know, if your core principles and your DNA values get away from you just a little bit, then we know it takes a world class goal maybe to derail you and then all of a sudden you're back behind the eight ball. So, yeah, I leave this game with mixed emotions. Like I said earlier, it's just unfortunate. I think the scoreline was a bit flattering but by no means, you know, did I think that we deserved to win or anything like this or that not realistic. So yeah, we look at his hard. It hurts because the boys are pretty beat up. And, you know, we know to compete with the best team in North America, you know, CONCACAF Champions League winners, you're going to have to bring a lot to the table. And yeah, we brought a lot to the table for many, many minutes of that game. So yeah, that's it.

On how to manage the game when it seems like everything is going the opponent's way...

Well, then you start to act, right. So you start to now -- you go to the bench, you start to try and get guys in then, and I think just before the goal we already called, you know, guys to get ready. We already got Jabs in the game, if I'm not mistaken. So, we had already tried to act because we could see the potential dangers, and it's just unfortunate Jabs picks up something on his groin muscle. I don't know if it's a groin or a hip flexor. I'm not sure. So, he picks up an injury. So you know, I think you can see we were proactive with -- one of the things that we've been is brave and proactive with our guys coming off the bench. And yeah, just didn't feel like the same impact as previous games.

On what seemed to be hampering Tim Parker towards the end of the game...

No, I think it's more his ankle. I think this turf is really hard. There's not much turf on the field left. But yeah, I think it's just guys took a beating. You know, we trained on a brand-new turf field yesterday and felt great. But then, you know, obviously, you come and play on different surfaces, and I think just the wear and tear of the game. But I think it's more joint related. I don't think it's muscular Yeah, I think he'll be fine.

JOHN NELSON

On how he felt playing as a wingback...

Yeah, no, it felt good. You know, I played it last year a bit with Cincinnati, so I was comfortable with it. But overall, I thought we did well with it especially Jake Nerwinski. I thought he had a very solid game at the back as well. Yeah, there were moments when we were higher up the field and able to get shots, crosses so overall good but obviously it's not an easy task with the running but you know in the first half, I felt like we were really all over them. They were a bit confused, and we were able to cough up chances from them. So overall, it was good.

On where the game got away from them in the second half...

Yeah, you know, I thought we were good through the first 65 minutes, but the ball didn't bounce our way. You know, the guy [Atencio] had an unreal shot, so credit to him. And then Seattle, they just kept going and going so credit to Seattle, a very good team. But like I said, I thought we were good for the first 65 minutes. We had some chances for sure.

On whether it would be a different game if the team got an early goal...

Of course, I mean, I think a goal definitely change the game. But either way, you know if we walked out of here 0-0, I think we would have been happy with that for sure. But, a goal in the first half would have changed the game.

ROMAN BÜRKI

On where the game fell apart tonight...

I think our game with the ball was not good enough today. We kind of had a lot of room sometimes with the ball but through like bad passes or not good quality passes we brought ourselves in difficult situations and I mean, yeah we had one chance and that was basically it so that's the reason for that.

On how he addresses the lack of intensity from the players...

Yeah, I mean, today I would not say that it was lack of energy. It was more like we had a system that we haven't really played before. It wasn't easy for everyone, just to play and not to think too much. So, we saw that in our pressing. So, it was basically all the time, compact pressing and not all the way out like what made us look good until now in the season. And I mean we need to work on that again to just be confident in pressing all out, you know, go through and put the opponents under pressure. So that they make a mistake, and we don't.

On the team sticking to the principles...

I mean, to be honest, we should not adapt too much to the opponent. We should play our game because it doesn't matter what opponent we play. When you look at the first games, we played our style and we were successful. So I mean, we should probably stay to our principles and I think that was what the coach said, and just do what we can and what we are doing good. So, pressing, working, but nothing too much.

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