Tag: Karol Swiderski

St. Louis City SC keeps getting welcome gifts from kindly MLS foes

It’s a friendly league, everyone is so nice

Everyone in MLS is so happy to have St. Louis City SC that they’re lining up to give the expansion side a gift.

That generosity may be the only explanation for the bizarre nature of the goals teams have handed St. Louis in their first two weeks of MLS play.

Last week, it was Austin FC’s Kipp Keller sizing up and delivering a perfect pass to St. Louis midfielder Jared Stroud, who showed his appreciation to his old club by spinning and firing home a fairly late equalizer in a game MLS’s newest team would go on to win 3-2.

This week it was Charlotte FC’s turn, and they made sure that St. Louis would have a happy debut at the newly-opened CityPark.

While Enzo Copetti would score the first-ever goal at the stadium for the visitors, Charlotte quickly made sure to make up for the faux pas by handing out three goals as St. Louis started life in MLS on a winning streak.

First, Jake Nerwinski’s floated cross towards João Klauss ended up looking like easy work for Bill Tuiloma, who won the header…only to bloop the ball backwards, up and over Pablo Sisniega for a 41st minute own goal.

With seconds left in the half, another gift: John Nelson’s cross ended up being swatted by Karol Świderski’s right hand, sending Eduard Löwen to the spot. The German Designated Player took advantage, converting the last kick of the half to give St. Louis a lead.

You’d think two gifts were enough, but Charlotte really wanted to make sure the newbies were comfortable in MLS. As such, they saved the biggest gift for last.

In the 71st minute, with St. Louis up 2-1, Charlotte should have had an easy time progressing the ball. Sisniega waited for Klauss to step to him before passing calmly to Adilson Malanda. It’s a sequence soccer fans are extremely familiar with: a possession-oriented team tries to shuffle up their opponent’s shape enough to move the ball forward.

However, Malanda decided to show some kindness for the expansion team instead, sending the ball directly to Klauss. The Brazilian striker, fresh off of scoring an 86th minute winner last week, got a foot on the ball before turning to chip Sisniega and put a second straight win on ice for St. Louis.

Charlotte’s warmth and affection for their opponents was clear enough at this point that the gift-giving could come to an end, allowing St. Louis fans to celebrate a famous first win.

Following the match, St. Louis boss Bradley Carnell joked that his players were doing a great job of “standing in the right place,” but only before noting that there is something to his forwards lingering up in seemingly offside positions while the opponent tries to set their preferred passing shape up.

The pressure is now on the Portland Timbers to conjure up even more lavish gifts for St. Louis, since that appears to be the hot new trend in MLS.

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