St. Louis CITY SC: Two losses in week to Chicago Fire rings alarm

St. Louis CITY SC has taken their fourth MLS loss of the season. It was also the second loss to Chicago Fire FC in the same week.

St. Louis CITY SC got Chicago Fire scheduled for both U.S. Open Cup and MLS matches in the same week. So within just a few days, the new MLS squad took two losses from Chicago. The MLS loss was 2-1.

The Fire isn’t having a great season in any case. They rest only third from bottom in the MLS Eastern Conference. Their uprising against St. Louis dragged the CITY team down a notch to third in the West.

The week’s results rang an alarm bell for CITY. Earlier in the season, teams called themselves out by failing to scout and prepare for the upstart expansion team from St. Louis. The new team technically is expansion, but wasn’t playing like one of those typically confused new squads.

St. Louis was winning earlier in the season – partly through shock and surprise. But with this fourth loss, CITY will have to do something the front office and coaching staff might never have considered during their first 11 games.

And that something is: Call themselves out and prepare more comprehensively for their opponents. Acting on that plan, they’ll have to have to make sure before the game ball hits the middle of the pitch, they know each opponent fully. They must know the other players just as fully as MLS teams prepare and know CITY.

Head coach Bradley Carnell hinted that one thing would not change in their preparation. Their game plan would include trying to keep in the chaos, as he termed it.

That means that the disruptive midfield cloud players were signed to form would continue. What will have to change is the attack.

In the game against Chicago, CITY players disrupted themselves too often. That self-destruction continued through the 70th minute when defender John Nelson got his second red card and the team went down a player.

Carnell said they would practice moving across the pitch in a free-flowing manner. The focus will be to control counter-attacks and find opportunities to dictate the tempo of the game.

Using their practices for the next match to increase player concentration will get CITY back to the free-flowing play that caused opponents earlier to unravel before them. It’s that quality that will get them to the point Carnell seeks where they can control counter-attacks.

When they reach that goal, they can go back to attacking and creating chances. Then finishing.