WOOOOOOO.
What a game. Showed up for a first half of more or less watching paint dry, but luckily in the second half a soccer game broke out. Let's talk about it.
Definitely started kind of shaky, with a couple dangerous crosses put in the box, but Houston apparently can't head the ball down so we more or less ended up fine. I do think we got lucky with the offside call, I was down close to the field at the stadium so I couldn't really tell if they were or weren't and on the replay it looks heckin' close; I imagine Houston fans are going slightly insane over that call and imagine I would be too if the same had happened to us.
That non-goal seemed to provide a spark though, and we were definitely playing better by the end of the first half and into the second. Shout out to Vassilev for putting in a shift and hanging in there, really hope he's ok because the angle of that fall on the wrist looked nasty. He almost scored an incredible header right after that would have been legendary but I don't think he'll be too upset to settle for an assist. Then we got caught on the counter where we missed like 5 tackles that we'd typically make and Blom stopped his defensive run for some reason, so things started getting tight again but shoutout to the boyz for not giving up and special shout-out to Blue Lock graduate Hosei Kijima for smelling a goal and stealing a win away for us. Welcome to St. Louis man!
I do want to talk about players individually to give credit where it's due, but I don't want to get caught up in trying to arbitrarily assign player ratings because as largely made up as those numbers seem to be to me defeats the purpose. Not hating on player ratings, more just saying I know mine would come from a marginally uneducated viewpoint so I don't want to mess it up. With that aside, let's get into it.
Starters
Burki - He got left out to dry on both the goal that called back and the one that counted. I feel like Burki can only make god-level physics defying saves so many times a year and I don't mind saving those for when we need 'em. Good on distribution, made the plays he could, honestly not a whole lot for him to do which is fine by me.
Totland - Everything we saw in preseason is coming true. This s our first choice right back, hard stop. Barring an incredible decline in form, Totland is going to be a huge difference maker this season for us, calling it now. He was everywhere defensively, put in great crosses, and almost hit a trivela goal that would have set CITYPARK on super fire. That's right, not just regular fire. Super fire.
Parker - Dude's Him. Not sure what else you want. He now has CITY's first ever regular season goa, playoff goal, and CONCACAF goal. He just comes up clutch for us in every way, and defensively was as solid as he always is. I didn't really watch the MLS before we got this team, and I know he's bounced around as a glue-guy/roleplayer before us but he's really come into himself here in St. Louis. You can just tell this dude believes in himself. FUN.
Yaro - Settled down eventually but that's probably a game he'd want back on the hole. Most of the goal chances including the offside seem to come from him getting beaten over the top or on the run, although funnily enough it didn't look like the goal that actually counted was on him in any way. He also though had some great pass blocks when we were in dangerous positions and overall I still think he played ok.
Markanich - Love this dude's intensity. He presses so high and generated a couple really dangerous chances for us. Defensively had some great cross blocks, although there were a couple times it seemed like he lost his man, but I also could have had a bad angle in his defense. No complaints really.
Durkin - I feel like we didn't see everything this dude can do yet, but what we saw so far was pretty good. He's really going to fill a gap for us I think as while not as good defensively as Blom (so far) and not as good offensively as Lowen, he can at least do both in the same game. Looking forward to what he'll provide.
Ostrak - I saw flashes. I still haven't seen what I want to see out of him. But it's there (I think). He had some nifty turns and some nice passing, and played better defensively than I expected. If Vassilev actually is out for a bit, he would be a candidate to play that wing spot closer to his natural position while he's out and see what he could provide.
Vassilev- St. Louis loves this guy already, but playing through a potentially broken wrist and almost scoring and then later assisting a goal before coming off definitely solidifies "man of the people" status. I hope his injury isn't anything serious and he's back soon.
Jackson - Jackson did Jackson things! And that's really all you can ask for. He beat four dudes on the dribble and later sorta just... lost the ball in front of one dude. But it was mostly good stuff, and as always if this guy can raise his floor it'll be wild to watch.
Klauss - Hoo boy we almost got another Klauss back pass goal. From the field level in the stadium where I was at we thought he was going to bury it but on the replay Houston did well to cut his angle pretty fast so *shrug*. At the end of the day you'd want a little more from him and I imagine he's kicking himself for not scoring that chance 6 feet from goal, but he'll be fine.
Adeniran - Adeniran also did Adeniran things. I think he tried to 1v4 about three separate times and hit the post on one of them. His height makes his skill on the ball kind of sneaky and you could see how some of the Houston players got caught off guard by his acceleration. Just give me more of that and we'll be fine.
Subs
Blom - Came in for Indy and did ok. No crazy stops that I noticed, and not sure what he was thinking on the Houston goal because he stopped his run when he might have been able to cut the pass. Guess he was worried about a cut back? Not sure. Anyways, still put in his shift.
Lowen - You noticed when he was back on the pitch. The team just sort of naturally flowed through him, and goodness his ball control is just miles better than anyone else we have. He didn't get to create any dangerous chances, but they'll come.
Pompeu - The team didn't manage to get him in isolation all that much to try and beat guys off the dribble, so a more muted performance aside from a couple glimpses but not a bad shift at the office, just filling a spot til the end of the game.
Kijima - Honestly I was kinda surprised when they brough him on, but oh man, welcome to the club. Debut goal to win the game at home is definitely one way to endear yourselves to the fans, and I think this guy is definitely going to contribute this year.
All in all, good start to the season! Let's do it again on Saturday!
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