Seven Things We Learned: St Louis City 3 - Inter Miami 0

Much to celebrate and a few concerning signs

Akil Watts has grabbed a starting role in this historic first St Louis City season.

What a win last night. It was fun to watch on television, so it must have been a blast in the stadium.

With two-thirds of the season in the books, and the All-Star break here, let’s take a quick look at what we learned from this match about where St. Louis City are in their exciting debut campaign.

Before we get started, my guess is that last night’s lineup was basically Bradley Carnell's first choice team at this point — at least until Lowen, Klauss and Nilsson are all fully back. That means Akil Watts, Aziel Jackson, and Josh Yaro have seized their opportunities and ascended to starting roles.

In retrospect, given how different the starting squad was for the midweek game against LAFC, I think Carnell must have partially conceded that game in LA in favor of focusing on getting these three points to take into the break. If so, it worked. The players who were rested in LA all played well last night.

Ok, so here we go. Seven important things we learned from this entertaining match.

Let me know in the comments below what you learned from the game.

1. Set pieces were spectacular. Three goals from dead ball situations. Adeniran wasn't well marked on his corner kick header, but it still required precision and power to put it past Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender. Tim Parker was marked tightly on his corner kick header, and he simply shrugged off the defender, got free, and powered a glancing header off the far post. Lowen's shot in the second half was absolutely top shelf. These three goals decided the match. Evidently a new "Set Piece Specialist" has joined City’s coaching staff. If so, he deserves a raise.

2. Weather delays are our secret weapon. This match was delayed after torrential rain drenched the city. When the rain disappeared after 30 minutes, the game kicked off, and as has been the case in previous delayed matches at City Park, the team came out and thoroughly whipped our opponents. If you’ve forgotten, delays in previous home games have led to the memorable 5-0 destruction of Cincinnati and the fabulous 4-0 demolition of Kansas City. In general, if we face a decent team at home, we should politely ask Bill Gates (or whoever is experimenting with weather manipulation these days) to give us a quick downpour before the match!

Löwen lines up his crushing, dipping free kick in the second half.

3. Eduard Löwen is a transformative player on this team. I said it many times before his injury—when he was Man of the Match in seemingly every match—but let’s say it again. There is a stark difference in the City attack when Löwen is on the field vs. when he isn't. Last night, after a few weak touches as he got into the game, Löwen simply took over the ball in the Miami half. We then saw for the first time since before his injury several of those "we're camped out around their box" minutes. Virtually every touch of his shows he's playing at a level above the players around him. In fact, for newcomers to the sport, I’d say watching Löwen play is a good way to understand the MLS level and what one level higher looks like. He regularly plays passes with his first touch, his passes are precisely to a teammate’s foot, he uses subtle flicks to pass or keep possession in tight quarters, and when he prepares to pass his vision enables him to see all teammates around him. He makes this team more dangerous, more cohesive, and more fun to watch. Fingers crossed he stays healthy 🤞

4. The attack otherwise is disconnected. When all your goals come from set pieces it means that, well, you're not scoring from the run of play. This is a problem. And it is a justified indictment of the attackers around Löwen. Adeniran, Ostrak, Alm, Stroud, Indy, and Nico are simply not connecting well with each other. Aziel Jackson has been a revelation, but he hasn’t quite become an MLS-level offensive connector. No one else on the team can connect passes in the attack like Klauss, although Löwen and Indy try. It appears Nico might not be a starter anymore, which is fine. Stroud did start but had a forgettable match, flubbing the game's best chance in the first half and criminally failing to pass on a breakaway in the second half. Adeniran has improved but still lacks vision as he did at the beginning of the season; he doesn’t seem to know his passing options when he’s on the ball, and I think because of this he often shoots when he should pass. Celio seems to be settling into a "supersub" role, where his dribbling skills are deployed against tired legs around the 65th minute. This is a fine utilization of his strengths and weaknesses; he needs to work on his finishing, as he really should have put away that beautiful Lowen through-ball in the 75th minute.

5. Another stout showing from the first-string defense. If Parker and Yaro are the current starting center backs, I'm fine with that. My question is, what happens when Nilsson is healthy? It’s a great problem to have. City now are really deep at center back. Parker, Yaro, Bartlett, Hiebert, and Bell have all had good matches over the course of the season. I think the elephant in the room is that Roman Burki deserves significant credit for how well the central defense performs; he commands the ship back there. Nilsson, who on paper is our best center back, has been injured the whole season thus far. Will he slot right in when he’s healthy? We’ll see. For now, it’s absolutely fitting that Parker will join Burki and participate in the All-Star game in Washington, DC next week.

Tim Parker scored a fabulous header and led the defense in the victory over Miami.

6. We continue to beat weak teams. This Miami club is obviously holding its breath for the arrival of Messi and the world-class veterans he’s bringing with him. For the spectacle, it would have been wonderful to have hosted Messi’s debut in City Park with our wonderful fans. But for the competitive side of things, it was far better to meet Miami before the arrival of the sport’s greatest player! A strong, talented forward might have had two goals in the first half off of the opportunities the Miami offense created; an offense led by Lionel Messi would likely have created even more. As it was last night, Miami is a weak team in this league, and we didn’t ask twice before putting two goals in the net in the first half en route to another comfortable win.

7. 41 Points. After a few rough patches, this club now can look back at a wildly successful first two-thirds of the season. If Lutz and Carnell aren't going to bring any new players in during this transfer window (I haven't heard any progress on either the Thorisson or Conrado rumors), it means to me that they're not so ambitious as to push for silverware this season. Upon contemplation… that's fine with me. If they're content to ride out this memorable season with the players who were there from the very start of the project, can we blame them? What a ride it’s been already. There's something to letting these exact guys get as far as they can. The team chemistry is obviously fantastic. With some luck, if Klauss comes back—and Lowen and Burki and Blom and Parker and Burki all stay healthy—this team could still make a real run at the Shield or the Cup exactly as it is. A more ambitious club would fortify its weakest spots (in this case, fullback and attack), but I can understand wanting to ride the magic of the club's first year all the way home. I pledge to tone down my broken-record about the needed transfers, and enjoy the ride from here on out 🙂

Up next is the Leagues Cup. Will the magic continue against Columbus and Club America?

Let me know what you learned from this match about where City are today—and what the rest of the season holds in store.