9/12 - STL vs MNUFC

St. Louis City vs Minnesota United

St. Louis City defeated Minnesota United 4-2 in a pretty open contest on Saturday night. After a quick goal by Tomás Chancalay, set up by a ridiculous weak foot assist from Joaquín Pereyra, St. Louis went on to dominate the first half. By the end of the first 45, St. Louis had a comfortable 3-1 lead heading into the locker room. In the second half, Minnesota were a bit more aggressive and pushed for an equalizer. The teams exchanged penalty kicks to make it 4-2 before a second yellow card issued to Kyle Duncan all but spoiled any chances of a Minnesota comeback.

This win makes it 15 straight MLS games unbeaten, and 16 across all competitions, for St. Louis. Despite losing elite playmaker Marcel Hartel and club legend Eduard Löwen, St. Louis keep rolling on. Rafael Navarro starred in his home debut, notching 2 goals and a secondary assist in this one. This brings his total up to 4 goals and 1 assist in just 2 starts for the club. Also noteworthy was his impressive chemistry with the other attackers in the system. Damet lined them up in their typical 3-4-3, with Navarro and Holse playing as dual 10's and Becher spearheading the attack. This allowed Becher to occupy the center backs while allowing Navarro to drift into pockets and becoming more of a playmaker. Navarro's physicality allows him to hold up the play, but he also has the technical ability to switch the point of attack effectively, as he showed against Minnesota this weekend. Both Becher and Navarro are relentless against the ball, making them a handful to play against for any defensive corps in the league. Their tenacity forced Boxall into a mistake, leading to the fourth goal, and he surely won't be the last victim of this tandem's pressure. However, what might be most exciting for St. Louis City fans will be the link up play between Holse and Navarro. If they want to make a deep run in the playoffs, the performances of these two players is going to be crucial. So far so good for them, as both of them were incredible on Saturday night. Navarro had the secondary assist on Holse's left footed curler and it was Holse's beautiful long ball that led to Navarro's cool finish on St. Louis' third goal. This chemistry is a very promising sign of a team that has no intentions of slowing down.

An interesting tactical wrinkle from St. Louis in this game was the deployment of Dante Polvara as a midfielder. While he is naturally a defensive midfielder, he has found a home as the left center back in Damet's system. In his return to the center of the park, he looked a little shaky to start the game. Polvara became more comfortable on the ball, but he rarely played progressive passes that broke the game open. That being said, his positioning provided a shield for the backline, which was crucial for controlling the proceedings, especially in the first half. Polvara slotting into midfield allowed Fallou Fall to start at left center back, where he excelled. Whether it was his aerial dominance or front footed challenges, including an interception that led to St. Louis' second goal, his defensive performance was outstanding. Additionally, Fallou has a lot of quality on the ball. His left footed long balls and distribution adds a weapon to St. Louis' build up that Polvara, and indeed any of the right footed players, can't provide. For St. Louis, this match was a very promising performance in terms of integrating some of their star players into their squad. With Damet's system, St. Louis are always going to be a difficult team to play against. But now with Rafael Navarro in town, St. Louis has that lethal edge and are cementing themselves as an elite team in the Western Conference.

In this match, Minnesota shifted to a 3-4-3 with a very deep line, perhaps looking to go back to the basics and solidify their defense. For most of this season, Minnesota has struggled to score goals but have been clean defensively, which has been their identity over the past few years. But, over the last stretch of games, Minnesota shifted to 2 strikers up top in Caldeira and Yeboah. The floodgates opened and suddenly they started scoring a lot of goals, but allowing even more. Unfortunately for the Loons, this tactical shift did not work, as they were outclassed by St. Louis in the first half. They struggled to get out of pressure when they were on the ball, and this resulted in wave after wave of attacks coming at them. Morris Duggan, one Minnesota's best performers this season, missed the match, which probably contributed to their defensive woes. This marks 14 goals conceded over the past 4 games, which is a problem that Knowles needs to fix.

One of the bright spots for Minnesota in this game was the performance of Kelvin Yeboah. He added to his account on the season with a penalty conversion. The penalty call may have been questionable, but the skill that the Loons striker showed to get past Orozco was ingenius. While inconsistent at times throughout his Minnesota United tenure, Yeboah now has 13 goals in 24 MLS games. Defensively, Yeboah also played a role in Saturday's game. In the first 10 minutes, he made life difficult by pressuring Polvara from behind, even forcing the mistake that led to the opening goal. Chancalay was played in behind by an outrageous weak footed through ball by Pereyra, and after a clean first touch, Chancalay coolly finished past Burki to put the Loons in front.

This early lead may have led to the demise of Minnesota United. They were far too happy to defend out of a very low block, allowing St. Louis to dictate the game in Minnesota's defensive half. This made it very difficult for Minnesota to get their foot on the ball and get out of their own half, which pinned back wingbacks Duncan and Markanich. In the second half, Knowles made an intelligent switch in encouraging his team to press higher. They made St. Louis uncomfortable in possession and generated more chances of their own, including ringing the woodwork three separate times over the course of the second 45. For Minnesota, this result has them spiraling out of the Western Conference playoff picture. They need to figure out their best personnel and formation if they want to revive their season and make a run in the playoffs.