COURTESY ST. LOUIS CITY SC
St. Louis City SC struggled in the second half of it's match against Nashville.
Nashville SC boasts the top defense in Major League Soccer along with one of the league's best players, 2022 MLS Most Valuable Player Hany Mukhtar. At the same time, St. Louis CITY SC faced a talented Nashville team without numerous key players.
Forward João Klauss continues to be sidelined with a quad injury suffered against the Colorado Rapids on April 22. CITY’s starting midfield duo Eduard Löwen and Njabulo Blom also missed the match in Nashville.
These key absences presented an uphill battle for CITY SC (and then there was a red card to boot). CITY SC fought admirably but fell 3-1 to Nashville.
“We never make excuses,” head coach Bradley Carnell said. “If we want to be able to be compared with the best teams in the league, we need to show it. And we need to show it in moments where we don't have guys, where we have guys missing.”
Video Assistant Ref Plays Key Role
The Video Assistant Referee is a crew of two referees who watch the match through every possible angle on monitors. The role of VAR is to provide assistance and advice to the referee on the pitch.
Plays where the referee makes a “clear and obvious error” are the only reviewable circumstances. This only happens in four match-changing situations: direct red-card incidents, cases of mistaken identity, goals and penalty decisions.
The drama began in the sixth minute when CITY believed it earned a penalty. After a combination between Nicholas Gioacchini and Tomás Ostrák, Gioacchini attempted to dribble past Nashville’s defender Jack Maher in the box.
Gioacchini managed to get the ball past Maher, but it appeared Maher tripped Gioacchini soon after. CITY believed the contact on Gioacchini warranted a penalty. Referee Nima Saghafi disagreed, but VAR advised Saghafi to review the play. Saghafi upheld his initial decision after further review.
Maher undoubtedly made contact with Gioacchini. But Saghafi needed to determine whether the contact warranted a penalty kick. It appeared Saghafi decided Gioacchini dragged his right foot behind him in order to initiate contact with Maher. If a player is determined to have purposefully initiated contact with a defender to draw a foul, no foul is awarded.
Nashville found its breakthrough in the 11th minute. Nashville’s Shaquell Moore crossed the ball into CITY’s box. Hany Mukhtar roamed into the box unmarked and found open space. CITY’s Miguel Perez won the initial header, but the ball landed at Mukhtar’s feet near the penalty mark.
An unmarked Mukhtar managed to settle the ball down and strike it into the back of the net to put Nashville up 1-0.
“If you have a player like [Mukhtar], you should always have one guy following him or trying to block a shot,” Roman Bürki said after the match. “He was all alone. He could’ve had a second touch and that’s not a good sign if it happens in our box.”
VAR came into play once more for CITY’s goal in the 41st minute. Indiana Vassilev made a short pass to Rasmus Alm off a corner kick. Alm crossed the ball and after some initial contact, Gioacchini managed to score. But Gioacchini appeared to score with his elbow as he fell backwards into the goal.
Assistant referee (one of the referees on the sideline with a flag) Mike Rottersman raised his flag because Gioacchini was in an offside position when he scored. This caused referee Nima Saghafi to initially disallow the goal due to offside. But VAR advised Saghafi to review the play once again.
Saghafi determined Gioacchini was in an offside position when he scored the goal, but that offense was nullified because a Nashville defender intentionally played the ball toward Gioacchini. The next issue for the officiating crew focused on whether Gioacchini committed a handball offense to score. Saghafi decided there was no handball violation from Gioacchini and awarded CITY a goal.
Second Half Adjustments
Nashville emphasized aerial battles and second ball situations to generate attacking opportunities in the first half. But CITY’s defense responded well. Nashville accordingly changed its offensive approach in the second half. Nashville brought on Ethan Zubak and Jacob Shaffelburg. Shaffelburg’s speed produced many dangerous opportunities for Nashville in transition.
Carnell also changed things up for CITY in the second half. John Nelson replaced Jake Nerwinski, and Kyle Hiebert moved to right-back as Nelson played in his preferred left-back position.
“Nelson gives us an attacking threat, gives us safety and security on the ball, gives us so many good moments. On the other side Kyle Hiebert, a lockdown defender against Shaffelburg,” Carnell said. Shaffelburg matched up against Hiebert and provided an offensive spark for Nashville. Hiebert committed multiple fouls as he struggled to keep up with Shaffelburg’s speed. The first foul resulted in a yellow card for Hiebert in the 54th minute.
Nashville’s Alex Muyl sent a long ball to Mukhtar in the 67th minute. Mukhtar positioned himself between CITY’s center-backs, and the pass from Muyl caught CITY’s defense off guard. Shaffelburg accompanied Mukhtar from the left with Hiebert trailing behind. Mukhtar passed the ball across the goal to Shaffelburg and forced Hiebert to make a last ditch challenge to prevent Shaffelburg from scoring. Hiebert’s mistimed challenge resulted in a penalty kick and a second yellow card. Hiebert’s second yellow card produced a red card, and CITY played the rest of the match down a man. Mukhtar stepped up and scored the ensuing penalty kick.
In the 75th minute, Mukhtar circled around CITY’s midfield to begin another scoring opportunity. Mukhtar passed the ball to Muyl on the right side of the pitch and continued to run forward. Perez initially followed Mukhtar from the midfield, but Perez appeared to lose track of Mukhtar’s movement after the pass.
Muyl passed the ball to Dax McCarty on the edge of the box. McCarty back-heeled the ball to open space in the box. An unmarked Mukhtar exploited the space to score his third goal of the night. “One guy scored three goals today, and we scored only one,” Bürki said. “We talked about [Mukhtar] and that was also part of our game plan, to take his joy out of the game tonight. But he took ours.” Bürki believes Mukhtar proved to be the difference between CITY and Nashville. “[Mukhtar]’s one of the, if not the best player in MLS and today, he showed why he was the MVP last year.”
After 17 matches, CITY currently sits atop the Western Conference with a 9-6-2 record. With 34 matches in an MLS season, Bürki is content with CITY’s position halfway through the season. “My personal goal before the season was to go to the playoffs. That's still my goal. And I think that's everybody else’s goal, too, at the moment.”
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