St. Louis City SC’s winless streak was extended to seven matches by the Seattle Sounders, who laid a 4-1 beat down on St. Louis Saturday night. The balance of play through the first twenty minutes was fairly even with both teams able to progress the ball into dangerous areas. City would earn the opener, a 29th minute penalty kick goal by Marcel Hartel, but that would prove to be the last bright spot on the night for St. Louis. Just three minutes later, the visitors would cede their lead after Timo Baumgartl fouled Paul Rothrock in the box. Albert Rusnák cashed in from the spot to even the score and it was all Seattle from there. Over the last 60 minutes, the Sounders outshot City 24-5 while dominating possession and the overall flow of the match. Their reward for that domination would come in the 61st minute when Obed Vargas put an effort towards goal that was deflected by Baumgartl before hitting the back of the net. It was all Sounders from there as their pressure continued to mount. Seattle added goals through Daniel Musovski and Nouhou Tolo in the 81st and 91st minutes respectively to cap the 4-1 win at Lumen Field.
Courtesy Sebastian Bush
Olof Mellberg was happy with the first thirty minutes but not much else. “Up until the penalty, we were the better team. After that they are much better than us in every way. They completely dominated the game after that,” he said after the game. “We didn’t concede that much and we had a very good period when we got our penalty and scored and just after. But after their goal, after the penalty, it wasn’t good at all in any way. Nothing was working. Lost organization, structure. It was a little bit deliberate when we were two goals down. We wanted to make something happen but it wen’t from bad to worse.”
In the second half, especially, the hosts had City on the ropes. Seattle generated 2.5 expected goals on 12 shots, yielding 3 goals over the last 45 minutes and stoppage time. Mellberg drew a comparison between this match and the away fixture against Sporting Kansas City when it comes to the mentality of the club after the match. “I think we fell today. We lost it today. It was a little bit similar to the last 10-15 minutes against Kansas away. When we lose organization and we start to make decisions for ourselves, we don’t look good,” he said. “I think we have looked at our best this season when we work extremely hard as a team, where we are well organized, concede as little as possible and be dangerous in transition. I wouldn’t say that in overall, but today in every way it wasn’t good enough; especially in the second half.”
Mellberg optimistic on bouncing back quickly. St. Louis will have to move on quickly from this disappointing result. City welcomes Union Omaha to Energizer Park midweek for a round of 32 clash in the US Open Cup. “I’ll be disappointed for a while now,” the gaffer said after the loss. “But you must immediately start to work on the next one. I’m really looking forward to that one to be able to bounce back as quickly as possible. That’s the good thing after a really disappointing game, to have a game on Wednesday again and to be able to bounce back. And that’s definitely our goal, for me and for the players as well, to show off our best. ”
With the loss, City drops to 2-4-5 through 11 matches. The Boyz in Red are now 12th in the Western Conference, sitting on 10 points. After the midweek tilt with Omaha, St. Louis returns to league play against San Diego FC. The newest MLS franchise sits in 4th place in the conference and will have a full week of rest ahead of their trip to St. Louis. With the injuries and fixture congestion coming up, Mellberg will have some massive decisions to make as he tries to get his City squad back into the win column.
Taking his passion for soccer and St. Louis to the next level, Jeremy aims to provide analytical coverage of all this St. Louis City SC.
