Three Points, One Rival Defeated: City Tops Sporting KC
- Philip Fox
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Credit: KSDK
NATIONAL SOCCER NEWS: www.nationalsoccernetwork.com
On Thursday, July 16th, St. Louis City SC took on rivals Sporting KC in the first match after the World Cup break. St. Louis entered the match coming off a hot streak right before the break, winning three and tying one of their last five regular-season matches, and winning their Open Cup quarterfinal against Houston. Energizer Park was filled with more than 22,000 fans ready to cheer on the boys in red.
St. Louis CITY SC lined up in a 3-4-3 formation under manager Joann Damet: Ben Lundt starts between the posts. Lukas MacNaughton, Timo Baumgartl, and Dante Polvara start as the center back trio. Conrad Wallem starts at the right mid, Daniel Edelman and Eduard Löwen start as the center mid duo, and Tomas Totland starts at the left mid. In the attack, Jeong Sang-Bin starts on the right wing, Simon Becher starts in the striker position, and captain Marcel Hartel starts on the right wing.
Sporting Kansas City lined up in the 4-4-2 formation under manager Raphael Wicky. Stefan Cleveland started at the goalkeeper position. Ian James started at the right back position, Jansen Miller and Or Blorian started at the center back duo, and Jayden Reid started at the left back position. In the midfield, Capita Capemba started at the right mid position, Lasse Berg Johnsen and Zorhan Bassong covered the center midfield, and Calvin Harris started on the left mid. Dejan Joveljić and Manu García started as the striking pair.
Kansas City kicked off in the 81° heat with a pile of humidity on top at a little after 7:30 p.m. Central time, and STL was ready! City controlled the ball from the beginning, earning plenty of fouls and taking shots on goal.
The first goal came from the hard knocks of Jeong. After a nice team build-up, the ball was crossed into the box for Becher, who went to head the ball but was knocked by the Sporting keeper, Cleveland, making the ball fall in front of Jeong, who finished the ball off while falling backward for an impromptu bicycle kick. City now led 1-0, sending a powerful message to their I-70 rival.
Less than 10 minutes later, the home squad doubled their lead in a perfect breakaway. After gaining possession of the ball, Becher dribbled the ball down the center of the field and slipped the ball past the backpedaling defenders to Hartel, who took one touch to calm the ball and slotted it through the keeper's legs.
In the 42nd minute, Sporting came back to cut the lead in half with a powerful shot from Capita. Lundt got a hand on it, but the shot was too hard and well placed for the German goalkeeper.
The first half ended with St. Louis leading Kansas City 2-1. St. Louis held 58% possession and took 11 shots, 3 on target. Kansas City took four shots, with only one on target, leading to their only goal of the first half.
In the second half, St. Louis continued to attack but struggled to find the net. In the 75th minute, the St. Louis City goalkeeper mistakenly passed the ball right to a defending Kansas City attacker, who tapped the ball to Joveljic, who finished with a left-footed shot into the left side of the net. It was a terrible mistake by the now-starting goalie for St. Louis, which definitely had fans wondering if and when Roman Bürki would return. The red-hot rivalry was now tied at 2 goals apiece.
Only five minutes passed before the attacking home team put enough pressure on Kansas City, with Becher getting through the box and trying to center the ball back, but defender Bartlow blocked the pass; unfortunately for Kansas City, he did so with his hand. After a lengthy VAR review, the penalty was given to St. Louis. Löwen stepped up to the penalty spot and slotted it home to the bottom right corner. That shot gave St. Louis the 3-2 lead, which they took to the end.
St. Louis ended the game with 53% possession, taking 20 shots, 5 on goal. Kansas City took 12 shots with three on target. Overall, it was a good outing for the home side at Energizer Park—a lot of high-energy plays and great passing around the field. The break did not seem to affect the camaraderie that had begun to emerge before the World Cup break.
Kansas City continued to struggle to finish out games and remained last in the Western Conference. St. Louis City SC sat in 10th place, one position behind a coveted playoff spot. Next, St. Louis travel to Los Angeles to play the struggling Galaxy, while Kansas City are heading back home to play Minnesota United.
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