Carnell left frustrated after 2-2 draw to DC United
Josh Yaro and João Klauss find the back of the net as CITY came from behind to equalize, but the way they conceded, and the lack of game management, left clear frustrations.
St. Louis found confidence after coming from behind to rescue points in back to back weeks on the road, but their return to CITYPARK boiled over into frustration as CITY SC failed in their chase for a go ahead goal.
This wasn’t a great advertisement for soccer but it was an interesting battle of wills.
Which Red Bull sculpted manager could implement their brand of heavy metal soccer? And which club could point to tangible evidence that their side had the better of last offseason’s deal that sent Chris Durkin to St. Louis in exchange for Lucas Bartlett and Jared Stroud.
Jared Stroud certainly knew the assignment, after acknowledging the crowd before the match, the former CITY SC man would go on to be a menace in the counter attack against a St. Louis that pushed ever higher. Stroud picked up an assist as DC United pushed ahead 2-1 through a strong Christian Benteke goal.
However, the story of the match was less about Stroud and Bartlett’s return and more about CITY SC’s continued frustration as DC United wasted time and anger towards continued missed calls boiled over.
CITY SC found the better of DC in most stats on the night, but DC found a way to dominate the scoring chances from open play, with Christian Benteke proving hard to deal with as the night ticked into 100+ minutes of play.
“First of all, just want to apologize to the fans,” Bradley Carnell intensely remarked, “it frustrates me a little bit when fans pay hard earned cash to get tickets and watch a soccer game and there's no rhythm to the game and there's no real action. For me, I hurt for the fans because they deserve more.
To my team, I'm proud that we go a goal up. Not so proud that we concede straightaway in two games where we give away these moments from the kickoff. So it's something to reflect on, something we're going to have to get better at and something we have to look at a little bit more intensely. By focus was not on the soccer match, no real soccer rhythm tonight. We showed guts and desire to get back in the game but those are the least of my thoughts tonight.”
Despite CITY SC eventually finding more of the big chances in the night, it was clear that DC felt they could obfuscate their way to a road point, as both clubs tried to out direct each other.
Roman Bürki aired a similar level of frustration, culminating in a confrontation with the DC United bench ahead of a final opportunity to play the ball forward. Bürki’s pleas to the ref to punish DC’s time wasting went unheard, and chants of “pay the refs” broke out in the dying embers.
“I think the frustration was more from our side was because I've never seen a team wasting time so much.” Bürki decompressed, “Just the referee not doing anything. I thought the goalkeeper lost a leg, but then all of a sudden he was still able to kick the ball almost to my box.
So I told him once the ref ‘this is obvious’, and then he asked me yeah, ‘what can I do?’ And I felt like yeah, you have two cards in your pocket. And I mean, use them if you have to, I mean, control the game. Not don't let the game control you or the other team control you. So yeah, it's unfortunate, you know, but I'm pretty sure we are pretty sure that this is not the only team doing that. I think we will try to win when we are winning not when we are a draw. So the first station was a little bit about that.”
The good news for CITY SC came as Célio Pompeu won a penalty in the 70th minute. Another instance of Célio offering a different look, and exploiting defenders through his ability to dribble through the lines. Célio ceded the look to João Klauss who, after boxing out the penalty spot, cleanly slotted the ball past Bono.
The goal was Klauss’ first contribution since his brace against Sporting Kansas City back on September 30th. It’s frustrating for any striker but especially a player of Klauss’ stature who continually finds himself in strong positions.
“It was a Good feeling.” Klauss reflected, “I mean, first of the season, I have been working very hard during the past games. Of course, as a striker, everybody expects that they score goals, every single game. It's not possible. But yeah, I'm happy to score my first one.”
Ultimately, the draw sees St. Louis CITY SC are one of 3 Western Conference clubs still undefeated, including back to back draws with either Tim Parker or Edu Löwen.
There is light at the end of the tunnel though, Löwen is on track to return ahead of schedule, and Njabulo Blom looked strong in his short appearance as he returned from his latest knock.
“The impact of the Champions Cup leaves its marks,” Carnell reflected, “you can see around the league what it does. We are getting over the hump now and getting guys slowly coming back and the more place that we have healthy, fit, strong in the roster, the more competition, the internal competition drives the external competition, and that's what we need from all the players.”
CITY SC will travel to Utah next weekend to hope and replicate last year’s 4-0 win. It’s a RSL squad that has been vulnerable at home, losing to the Colorado Rapids a week after running over LAFC.
As Carnell’s group analyzes the tape from this one, the frustration may seep back in, but with Josh Yaro’s goal off the corner, and Klauss back on the scoring sheet, there’s confidence in finding another come from behind result.