St. Louis City SC Breaks Through Colorado's 10-Man Wall
Credit: St. Louis City Communications
NATIONAL SOCCER NEWS: www.nationalsoccernetwork.com
On Christmas in July, or July 25th, 2016, St. Louis City SC were back home for the holiday after another victory against the Los Angeles Galaxy. That day, they faced the Colorado Rapids, who had just come off a last-second win over San Diego. City had looked strong in recent matches, winning five of their last six league matches and earning a draw in the other.
Saint Louis started in a 3-4-3 formation under manager Yoann Damet. Captain Roman Bürki started in goal. The three defenders were Jaziel Orozco, Timo Baumgartl, and Dante Polvara. In midfield, Conrad Wallem started at right mid, Chris Durkin and Daniel Edelman started as the center-mid duo, and Tomas Totland started at left mid. Marcel Hartel started on the left wing, Simon Becher started at the striker position, and Sang-Bin Jeong started on the right wing.
Manager Matt Wells led the Colorado Rapids in a 4-3-3 formation. Nicholas Hansen started in goal. Reggie Cannon started at the right back position, Lucas Herrington and Rob Holding started in the center back position, and Loic Williams started at the left back position. The center line consisted of Paxten Aaronson, Joshua Atencio, and Hamzat Ojediran. On the attack, Dante Sealy started on the right wing, Rafael Navarro started at the striker position, and Darren Yapi started on the left wing.
Another sold-out crowd at Energizer Park sat in the heavy Missouri muggy air to cheer on their boys in red. The Rapids started the night with the ball, but that was about all they saw of it for most of the game.
In the 12th minute of play, St. Louis was pushing pressure on the Rapids. The Rapids tried to send the ball back to their defensive line, but it was mishandled. Jeong was on his way to attack it when Holding (ironically named) held back Jeong, and, as the last line of defense, he was given an automatic red card. Colorado was now down to ten men for the rest of the night.
St. Louis finished the first half with 59% possession, taking a total of seven shots, but only one was on target. Colorado did not take a single shot in the entire half and only had three touches in their attacking box.
St. Louis continued the second half with intense pressure against the 10-man Rapids. There were plenty of chances for St. Louis to take the lead. Still, Colorado parked the bus and made sure that all of their shots were blocked before they could even get to the goal until the 83rd minute, when Saint Louis was looking for a way through the wall of defenders placed by Colorado. The ball was lifted to Totland, who headed it down to Tomás Ostrák, who powered the ball with his right foot into the right side netting where no goalie could get to it.
St. Louis finished the night with 65% possession and took a total of 20 shots, but only three were on target. The 10-man Colorado wall blocked 10 of the shots taken. Colorado finished the game with two shots. Neither of them was on target.
St. Louis is now undefeated since May 9th and will face Real Salt Lake on August 1st at Energizer Park. The Colorado Rapids head back home to Colorado and Dick's Sporting Goods Park to face Austin FC on August 1st as well.
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