Minnesota Snaps St. Louis CITY SC's Winning Streak

St. Louis CITY SC’s historic five-game winning streak start to its inaugural Major League Soccer season ended in front of a sold out CITYPARK on Saturday night. CITY fell 1-0 to a 78th-minute Minnesota United penalty kick.

“We’re not superhuman after all,” head coach Bradley Carnell declared after the match. Minnesota overcame CITY’s aggressive pressing style by setting up in an extremely defensive low block. Teams operating in a low block will put most of its players behind the ball and rely on the counter-attack to generate offense. But CITY has little to worry about since few MLS teams rely on a low block to defend throughout a match.

Minnesota’s playing style comes from some measure of desperation. All-star midfielder Emanuel Reynoso's suspension by the league in February forced Minnesota to adapt its playstyle in his absence. Minnesota proved its low block can be effective by doing what no other team in MLS has been able to achieve so far: prevent CITY from scoring goals. “Credit to Minnesota United. [They came] here away from home and set up a really tight defensive structure,” Carnell noted after the match.

Sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel also credited Minnesota’s defensive structure. “They were smart,” he said in his post-match remarks. “They were really tight. They didn't give us that many chances like we normally are able to play out for ourselves.”


A Match of Adjustments
Minnesota tested CITY’s build-up play throughout the match. These attacking sequences start when CITY has clean possession of the ball in its own half and progresses toward the opponent's goal. Most of CITY’s goals so far have come in transition moments when they win the ball back. When CITY catches a team in transition, the defense doesn’t have time to settle and get set.

At that point, CITY can find gaps and exploit the spaces in a disorganized defense. Add the fact that CITY executes a rapid counter-attack, and it’s apparent why CITY has been so prolific this season.

But Minnesota did its homework and prevented itself from getting caught in transition by deploying a low block. Minnesota’s defensive scheme clogged up the middle of the pitch and prevented CITY from finding gaps to exploit. It also ensured that CITY would fail to catch Minnesota disorganized. This posed a challenge CITY had rarely encountered before in its previous matches.

“They were very well adjusted,” Pfannenstiel said after the match. “Once teams know us more and more, and once they see us play more and more, it’s obviously easier to figure us out as well.” CITY dominated the first half and forced Minnesota’s all-star goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair to make big saves. Minnesota produced few attacking opportunities but that was irrelevant. The critical point: Minnesota survived CITY’s first-half onslaught. By heading into half-time 0-0, Minnesota allowed itself to regroup and come into the second-half reinvigorated.

“Tactically, they didn't really change that much. They just came out, pretty, pretty, I would say, on fire,” Pfannenstiel said of Minnesota’s second-half performance.

Minnesota controlled the first 15 minutes of the second-half, and Carnell realized something had to change. Carnell brought on Njabulo Blom, Samuel Adeniran, and adjusted CITY’s formation to a narrow 4-1-3-2.

“We just thought we needed the security of one extra six,” Carnell explained after the match. “We tried to still keep numbers in the box. We tried to still squeeze the game without losing the game. We didn't want to expose ourselves, and we thought the structure that we went to would help us in these certain moments.”

CITY’s rearrangement provided more defensive solidity but at the expense of offensive fluidity. CITY looked uncomfortable and disorganized in the attack. Minnesota recognized CITY’s numerical advantage in the midfield and switched to a 4-3-3 in response. As a result, Minnesota continued to restrict CITY to shots outside the box and held on to a draw until the 75th minute.


Is Officiating to Blame?
Jake Nerwinski received the ball close to the sideline down the right-hand side in the 75th minute. As the ball traveled to him, Nerwinski saw Tomás Ostrák open in the middle of the pitch.

Nerwinski could’ve also dropped the ball to Kyle Hiebert, but his decision to play the ball to Ostrák still seemed like a good idea. Nerwinski saw Minnesota’s Franco Fragapane blocking his passing lane to Indiana Vassilev. Nerwinski knew that if he could play the ball to Ostrák, then Ostrák could find Vassilev on the wing. Unfortunately, Minnesota’s Kervin Arriaga anticipated Nerwinski’s pass to Ostrák.

Nerwinski played a weak pass to Ostrák and Arriaga intercepted it to kickstart Minnesota’s counter-attack. Arriaga slotted forward Luis Amarilla through on goal but Nerwinski had tracked back fast enough to intercept the ball. That would’ve been redemption for Nerwinski had Hiebert not slid into Amarilla.

Hiebert’s challenge on Amarilla was a clear penalty. Referee Jon Freemon immediately pointed to the spot and Amarilla converted from 12 yards out. Hiebert has been sensational this season, but he made a rash decision and CITY paid for it. Had Nerwinski failed to beat Amarilla to the ball, Hiebert likely would have cleanly won his challenge on Amarilla.

Carnell pulled Nerwinski from the match in the 78th minute. The defender came off the field visibly upset with himself. “It’s never anyone's fault,” vice-captain Tim Parker said after the match. “Those kinds of plays happen. I'm not sure exactly what happened. But yeah, I mean, we'll just pick him up and we'll go again next week.”

CITY believed they had earned a penalty when João Klauss received a kick on the head from Minnesota defender Michael Boxall later in the match. Referee Jon Freemon disagreed. He, like many others, believed that Klauss lowered his head to a dangerous position. It was a 50/50 decision — one that simply didn’t go CITY’s way.

Pfannenstiel refused to blame the officiating. “It was not up to the referee. It was up to us,” he said after the match.

The Response
Of course, CITY expected to lose a game eventually. “But it's still bad,” said midfielder Eduard Löwen. “You don't want this moment, the moment to come. Everybody wanted to win.”

Parker believes a lot of good can come from the loss. “It's not the end of the world, you know. There's going to be stuff that we can look at now. Dive deep into the video and see how we can get better for sure.”

“There's a lot to learn about the guys in the locker room too, when you lose a game. So it's gonna be good to see everyone's reactions.” Despite the loss, CITY still sits atop the Western Conference. But CITY’s next test will be the biggest yet: a showdown against the Seattle Sounders Saturday at Lumen Field. Seattle is only two points behind CITY.

Carnell believes CITY is ready for the challenge. “I think everyone knows something a bit about us. And now it’s up to us to respond.”

Julian Trejo, a freshman at Washington University in St. Louis, is a native of Arkansas, and a former goalkeeper for several state championship teams. His work is supported by the River City Journalism Fund.

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