St. Louis CITY SC scored two first half goals to record their 11th win of the season against Colorado Rapids at CITYPARK. Defender Tim Parker found the opener four minutes into the game before Jared Stroud doubled the lead for the hosts in the 11th minute. With the win, CITY SC remains at the top of the Western Conference standings with 35 points. St. Louis CITY SC heads to Canada for a meeting with Toronto FC next Saturday.
CITYPARK, St. Louis’ Fortress
St. Louis has recorded a sellout in its first 12 home matches in its young history. Offensively, St. Louis has tallied 31 goals in 12 matches at home. On the defensive side of the ball, CITY SC has allowed just 10 goals across all competitions and has trailed just 100 of 1080 minutes. St. Louis has 8-3-1 record at home this season and has scored at least three goals in seven of their eight home wins across all competitions.
Postgame Notes
- After 20 games, St. Louis ranks second in the league in goals scored (39), first in goal differential (+15)
- Tim Parker scored his second goal for St. Louis CITY SC and his sixth goal in his MLS career across all competitions
- With his goal, Stroud has eight goal contributions (4 goals, 4 assists) this season
- CITY SC is 5-0-1 when Stroud tallies a goal or an assist.
- CITY SC has 10 different players (Klauss, Gioacchini, Stroud, Löwen, Vassilev, Hiebert, Alm, Ostrák, Adeniran, Parker) that have multiple goals this MLS season, more than any other team in the league.
- Sam Adeniran provided his first assist for CITY SC on Stroud’s goal.
- With his assist, Adeniran has three goal contributions (2 goals, 1 assist) in the last two games
- CITY SC are undefeated when scoring first (9-0-2 record)
- CITY SC fielded their 19th different lineup in 20 MLS games this season
- Roman Bürki recorded his fifth clean sheet of the season
Goal-Scoring Plays
STL – Tim Parker (Aziel Jackson), 4th minute: Tim Parker header from the center of the box to the bottom left corner.
STL – Jared Stroud (Sam Adeniran), 11th minute: Jared Stroud right footed shot from the left side of the box to the center of the goal.
Next Game
St. Louis CITY SC heads to Canada for a meeting with Toronto FC on Saturday, July 8.
July 1, 2023 – CITYPARK (St. Louis, MO)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
St. Louis CITY SC 2 0 2
Colorado Rapids 0 0 0
Scoring Summary
STL: Tim Parker (Aziel Jackson), 4’
STL: Jared Stroud (Sam Adeniran), 11’
Misconduct Summary
COL: Ralph Priso (caution), 75
Lineups
STL: GK Roman Bürki ©; D Josh Yaro, D Akil Watts (Lucas Barlett 67’), D Kyle Hiebert; D Tim Parker, M Jared Stroud (Jake Nerwinski 77’), M Aziel Jackson (Miguel Perez 87’), M Njabulo Blom (Rasmus Alm 67’), M Indiana Vassilev; F Nicholas Gioacchini, F Sam Adeniran (Celio Pompeu 77’)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Ben Lundt, D John Nelson, D Jonathan Bell
TOTAL SHOTS: 20; SHOTS ON GOAL: 7; FOULS: 7; OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 5; SAVES: 3
COL: GK William Yarbrough ©; D Keegan Rosenberry, D Danny Wilson, D Andreas Maxso, D Sam Nicholson, D Steven Beitashour (Lalas Abubakar 45’), M Danny Leyva (Braian Galvan 74’), M Connor Ronan, M Cole Bassett, F Michael Barrios (Ralph Priso 74’), F Kevin Cabral (Darren Yapi 67’)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Marko Ilic, F Calvin Harris, D Sebastian Anderson, D Anthony Markanich, D Michael Edwards
TOTAL SHOTS: 9; SHOTS ON GOAL: 3; FOULS: 10; OFFSIDES: 0; CORNER KICKS: 9; SAVES: 5
Referee: Fotis Bazakos
Assistant Referees: Brian Dunn, Ryan Graves
Fourth Official: Adam Kilpatrick
VAR: Alex Chilowicz
AVAR: Tony Obas
Venue: CITYPARK
Weather: Clear, 62 degrees
ST. LOUIS CITY SC POSTGAME QUOTES
Video: Bradley Carnell
Audio: Recording
Bradley Carnell
BRADLEY CARNELL: Very happy with tonight’s performance, not just with the clean sheet. We had one scary moment in the first minute of the game, and I thought from then on we mitigated any chance.
So a clean sheet is just a reward for the hard work. I thought they challenged us; we countered that; they challenged us again; we countered it again.
I thought it was a good, complete team effort from players and staff just to make sure we kept on top of things on our end, and an early start for the game. That’s what we wanted. We wanted a rapid start. We wanted to put them in a quick game. We knew they were going to slow it down at times. We knew they were going to give us the ball at times. So the quicker we could get at them and reward ourselves, and we said it’s a race to the first goal.
Happy with that, and we know we have two-match away streak now, and this just sets up that we can travel to those games with good spirits and happy vibes.
Q. Wanted to ask about Akil Watts, second consecutive game he has a start. What have you seen from him in the last couple of games?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Tonight was very deliberate. We knew we play with a back four with Kyle Hiebert, we don’t expect Kyle Hiebert to bump forwards and get in the final third too often. He did his bit, but we knew then Akil Watts, he’s a very attacking outside back and from that point of view we saw exactly that. Brave, two forward defense, transitions.
Both outside backs were outstanding tonight. Kyle steps in to win the ball on the goal, and Akil is very dangerous in the final third with dangerous crosses low, and hard we earned a bunch of corners that way. Credit to Akil.
It was just precautionary to get him out of the game; the load, cumulative fatigue over two games now and mitigating minutes. Just hope to keep these guys going along through the stretch here.
Q. AZ and Sam seem to be seizing their chances getting into the lineup. Talk about their play and Sam’s play on the assist on the second goal which was an exceptional effort.
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah, you saw one or two bursts of what Sam [Adeniran] can provide. He’s not just a hold-up guy. He can also challenge the back line with his speed and pace and power. So that was pretty fun to watch.
[Niko] Gioacchini, always have to keep on eye on him. Just the balance that we found in the midfield with AZ [Jackson], we have the creative artist underneath just between the line and setting up two striker, powerful runners who can hold up the play as well.
I felt it was a good performance from the front three tonight and every addition we brought into the game as well, I thought they played their first part in the game as well and secured the victory for us.
Q. How is Njabulo?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yesterday he was — I don’t think any South African has felt the humidity and heat as we felt over the last two days. He just struggled with the heat a little bit, fatigue, so he had a couple of dizzy spells going into the game and we were just monitoring that.
We had a backup plan if he couldn’t go, but credit to him for pushing through and keeping things simple and still doing his job.
Q. Can you still be surprised by Roman’s saves? Just every game, he comes up with something else.
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah, so I can’t be surprised because it’s never the same save. So it’s always new saves that always surprise us.
No, he doesn’t surprise us as all. We see it in training four days, five days a week. So we enjoy being around greatness and we enjoy seeing Roman [Bürki] getting rewarded with the All-Star call-up.
He’s our captain and leader for a reason. He’s displaying and being a leader from the front. He’s not just a voice in the locker room but also a leader, leads by doing, so credit to him.
Q. And it picks the guys up?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Sure. It’s an energy booster. I think Roman [Bürki] is chasing — I said tonight, we are playing against ourselves. It’s us against us because we want to challenge ourselves, and playing against a team who has not had a great run of form lately, that’s when they are at their most dangerous because at some time that trend stops.
So we took it personal, not on our watch that that trend is not going to stop here at CITYPARK. Credit to the fans as well. They were immensely loud from the very get go and happy about that, too.
Q. You talked early in the week about how long passes and diagonal plays were what they got to in Colorado, very first play of the game, diagonal play and couple good long balls. You talk about mitigating their chances. How did you go about mitigating their chances in those specific opportunities.
BRADLEY CARNELL: Just with different confrontational lines throughout the game. Sometimes you feel you’re in it and you can stay in it and defend forwards and sometimes you feel you get a little bit stretched.
Now, it’s great intentions just to now release and play the pressing game, but at some point you need to be strategic and get numbers across and delay slightly before you can find the next trigger. I thought our pickup points were slightly different tonight and you could see a lot of the times, they got the ball and looked, they saw it was blocked, covered, they looked, so we nullified quite a lot of that. Credit to the boys for the game plan.
Q. Seemed to be a shift in the midfield due to the injury so Löwen. Guys are getting outside and crashing back in defense. How are you shifting the defense, or the midfield, I should say.?
BRADLEY CARNELL: It’s partly formation and partly personnel. We know Indy [Vassilev] and Jared [Stroud] have great engines. So to get out there, and to do the dirty work, so they have to connect to [Njabulo] Blom on the weak side as a double six and then they release out and also in transition they need to do their bit, too.
I thought we should have finished the game off in the first 25 minutes, should have been 4-0, 5-0 at that point. That’s one thing if we can take away from this game is to be a little more ruthless. Because they managed the end of the game towards the first half very well, and then they started the second half very good and challenged us. I would have liked the game to have been put to bed a little bit earlier.
Q. Jackson had another fantastic performance tonight, as well. When you acquired him in the off-season, were you expecting him to be this good, so soon?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Then we wouldn’t have signed him, right. If we look at talents and we look at players throughout the league, Lutz [Pfannenstiel] has a good network, and we feel we have a good system and platform to promote youth and develop players.
Sometimes it’s not easy as well. AZ [Jackson] gets signed, start in Minnesota 2, didn’t really get the looks he would have liked. And I’ve told him before, he’s going to have all of the experiences with us he’s going to play for City 2; he’s going to be on the bench with the first team; and he’s not going to be on the roster sometimes; and he’s going to start games. I’ve been true to all of those things that I told AZ.
And credit to him, trusting the pathway and sometimes it’s frustrating as a player when you feel you’re in a good run of form and the team is doing well and I’m not getting minutes, and my heart goes out to like Isak Jensen on the bench, ready to go, and all of a sudden, I don’t get my number called tonight.
And that’s part of it because we see top, talented guys training and it’s just the patience and the trust now in the coaching staff to know what is best for them at their moment in their careers.
Q. Before the changes, the guys who played at San Jose, Watts, Adeniran — Sam and AZ, and obviously you said competition starts again on Tuesday, so do those guys — off the boost they got from last Saturday, do they come into practice this week with even more energy?
BRADLEY CARNELL: No, I don’t think so. I mean, the minute we — yes, more energy for sure, more energy from everybody else, and again, it’s the internal competition now over these months where we know League’s Cup is coming up, and we know there’s a bunch of games back-to-back and we know we have midweek games. There’s minutes there for everybody.
And I’m happy to have got Jake Nerwinski again and did a great job at the wingback. There’s going to be minutes, and all I ask for is patience from the players.
And sometimes it’s personnel. Sometimes it’s the opposition that gives us an indication of who we can play and go against their weakness to our strengths and vice versa.
So that’s part of the game planning and part of having the roster that we have that it’s almost like a hybrid system. It’s a plug-and-play and we can put guys in and do just about anything. So credit to the guys for being flexible, open, and smart, tactically smart to know what to do in the moment, so credit to these guys.
Q. A lot of center backs out there, Hiebert, Parker —
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah, [Kyle] Hiebert has been used for a couple of weeks now in a different role, but still if you look at his winning percentages, he’s one of the best in the League in 1v1 duels and he’s a weapon out there, too. He can play center back just as easy. Right now he’s doing the job for the team at outside back.
Q. You said it was a race for the early goal. Explain how important that early goal is to you guys.
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah, I think I don’t need to explain it. I think we just need to look at the stats, right. I’m not sure of them but you know, when we score first, I think —
THE MODERATOR: 9-0-2.
BRADLEY CARNELL: There we go. He’s got it.
So if you look at that, it’s very important for our style of play just to make sure we get out, there guns blazing without being naïve and vulnerable, of which, like again, if there’s anything to take away tonight, is the first minute of the game.
So whether that’s first half of the last two games — I mean, the start of the second half of the last two games or now the start of this game.
So it’s something that we have to mitigate, something we have to spark, and I don’t know, something in the locker room before we go out, and just to make sure that we don’t want to give these chance as way too early on, and we want to make sure that we put enough pressure on the opponent to fold, to bend, to break, and then score goals.
Q. The 70th minute, up 2-0, and haven’t put it way the way you wanted it to, you shift the back line and go to a five-man, three-man back. How do you get the confidence in your team to make that shift so late, not only with a player like Yaro on the back line, but shifting the formation you’re in?
BRADLEY CARNELL: Yeah, it’s just belief in what we are doing. So we trained throughout the season and played it in Seattle and we have done it a few times. I feel we have done pretty well at times with a back five. The thing you have to do is stick to your principles and we have to be brave. I believe if I portray bravery.
As a coach it should ignite the players to be brave in that moment to defend fowards and to stay true to their principles and still to connect and still to push up the back line. Credit to the boys to be flexible and I believe tactical at the same time but always committing to their principles and with that, I believe we can play any formation.
Jared Stroud
On how he feels about how the team started the game tonight…
Yeah, I mean, we came out really well. I think we talked about it the first 15 minutes we want to set the tone. I mean, I think we could of had three or four to be honest but we got two and yeah, maybe we could of got more but yeah, super excited with the start and I think yeah, our defensive resilience lead us the rest of the way.
On how it is having Burki in goal…
I mean, it’s nice we you know, we don’t want him to make saves we want to make sure he doesn’t have to make a save during the game but when he makes a big save Yeah, for all of us. It just gives us confidence that if somehow something slipped through, he is there. And he makes just such a difference you know, because goals change games. And making those big saves for all of us just gives us energy. It gives us confidence that you know, I think we have the best goalie in the league. And of course, the first second they get a huge chance but he’s a difference maker. He’s been one all season. He’s just saved us in so many ways. Yeah, we’re grateful to have him.
On how it feels being 20 games in and on top of the West…
We like it. I mean, we don’t want to be anywhere else. Yeah, we’re just you know, we’re just fighting every week to get three points. But yeah, we’ve got a little eye on the table. We like being up there. And I think we got three games to go, some tough away games and at the end of the break, we’ll see where we are but first feels good.
Aziel Jackson
On being brave as a team
I think being brave is just being on the front foot and also just having confidence in yourself and just comes from it comes with positivity. If you’re positive, you’re willing to step forward and step up, be brave to take the next step. And I feel like coming back into the game like I said playing vertically out Bradley wants us to play that stays true to our principles. And we’d love to even if we lose the ball we are where you can tell today our reaction time is everyone’s reacting to the ball and we win the ball when we go forward.
On what it means to score the first goal
If you know about city park, we love to go all the way, we love to just keep going down their throats and hopefully we were trying to get three or four goals at the end of the first half. But you know we’re able to get to the momentum on our side and keep going
On being in first place
Yeah, they’re great wins for the team and for the club. I think it stays true to every player on our team. Every player has been so diligent and respectful to the principles and being there for each other. I think we’re one of the best teams, probably the best team at sticking true to who we are.
On being able to play how you want on the ball
I think it just comes with this time on the ball. I just love when I’m on the ball I like to play free. I like to have some flare and somba to my game. I think it’s just because my favorite player is Ronaldinho, so I try to implement my game from him. You know, I don’t I don’t really think about it too much. I just tried to play in the best way for the team to help
Sam Adeniran
On the importance of two goals in the early minutes…
It gave us momentum going throughout the whole game. Having that cushion helped out but the job wasn’t done. That two-zero is the worst thing in soccer because it’s so easy to give up. Luckily, our defense was strong tonight.
On seizing the opportunity after being called back from San Antonio…
It feels great to be able to get minutes in the MLS. I’ll give it everything that I have to continue getting those minutes.
On the energy in practice leading to game day…
The guys in training were pumped up ready for Colorado. Great work by the coaches to get us ready throughout the whole week. We performed well tonight so hopefully we can take that into Toronto as well.
On what bravery means…
Having a lot of confidence and not being scared to fail.
Tim Parker
On how the team feels after a big win against San Jose…
You know, when we went on the road to San Jose to get a result there, and a tough place to play, it was big for the boys you know, the locker room was buzzing afterwards. Then come back home, you know we expect to take care of business at home. And then now we go on the road again to two tough places, but you know, we’re on a good little run of form and we just need to continue that.
On making the all-star game…
It’s really cool. You know, I think being in this league for a while now, it was always a goal of mine, to find my way to that game. To say, this year for my expectations to get there was a little different. You know, I wouldn’t say that it was on my radar this year, but obviously the starts of the year that we had, the play that we’ve been able to produce, the spot that we’re in as a team. It’s all credit to my teammates as well. And, yeah, you know, I’m thankful.
On still being in first place 20 games into the season…
Yeah, you know, there’s still plenty of room for us to grow. You know, I think when we hit that half point of the year, you know, it’s kind of a reevaluation point, look back at where we were in the beginning, evaluate everything from the half point spot, and then continue to go on because, you know, we’re only halfway there. There’s a lot of games left to be played. There’s a lot of points to be had. And for us, I mean, there’s a lot of growing to do as well, you know, this is still a first-year team. So, we have to be able to grow in moments and in games.
On what being brave means on a personal and a team level…
Yeah, you know, it’s brave in the style of play. It’s brave in how, when guys get opportunities, don’t shy away from it. You know, I think we want to instill confidence in guys. We want to encourage guys to play their own way and have that freedom. And you can kind of see it with AZ and Akil tonight. You know, I think both did really well. And we’re not asking them to do too many complicated things, but kind of be themselves, and I think that they did a good job of that.
