CITY predictably rotated heavily for this match after Wednesday's emotionally and physically draining US Open Cup Final. A desperate RSL side trying to stay in the playoff hunt came out and dominated a match marred by poor pitch conditions and an ugly fan incident directed at CITY's Fallou Fall late in the contest for a 3-0 RSL win—a forgettable night in an otherwise unforgettable week. Let's take a look at RSL's goals.
Sergi Solans - Goal (41')
The play starts with Ben Lundt throwing the ball to Rafa Navarro, who makes a backheeled pass toward Tomáš Ostrák. Unfortunately, the pass is a little off the mark for a flat-footed Ostrák, who is slow to react and can't prevent a turnover to RSL's Luc de Fougerolles. The RSL defender heads upfield, slipping past Chris Durkin with a slick give-and-go to Morgan Guilavogui.
As de Fougerolles receives the return pass, Guilavogui is on his left, and both Sergi Solans (#22) and Saba Lobjanidze (#12) are on his right. CITY's defense shifts over to the right side, with Timo Baumgartl moving to play the ball, sliding in front of de Fougerolles, and Fallou Fall trailing and defending Lobjanidze. Solans reads this, and angles a run away from Fall into space as the CITY defender gets dragged out of position by a cutting Lobjanidze.
We saw this last week against Minnesota, where Fallou can lose field awareness and get pulled away from where he should be - here, he cuts all the way across to defend Guilavogui with the ball, leaving both Lobjanidze and Solans uncovered, with just Durkin attempting to fill space.
Fall's positioning would have been fine had he blocked the pass; instead, he overran Guilavogui, who slips a cross back behind Fall to the waiting Solans, who buries it for a 1-0 RSL lead. This unnecessary turnover was compounded by poor defensive discipline.
Dominik Marczuk - Goal (52')
This sequence began with a ball played out to the wing from Morgan Guilavogui to RSL's Dominik Marczuk, who was defended in isolation by Rafael Santos. Santos' hips turn outside, but he's not positioned inside enough to force Marczuk wide; instead, the RSL forward cuts in and fires a left-footed shot that Ben Lundt punches away to the center of the pitch.
RSL's Luc de Fougerolles recovers it and slides it back to Marczuk. This time, Santos is square to him but farther away, and Marczuk takes advantage of that space to rip an absolute screamer into the upper right-hand corner past a helpless Lundt.
It was a beautiful strike, but the space given to him to take that shot was entirely too much - more than 16 feet separated the two when the RSL man hit the shot. Santos needed to step up and force a pass or dribble wide, but his failure to do so let Marczuk hammer home a second goal for the home side.
Sergi Solans - Goal (57')
RSL's third goal, a brace for Sergi Solans, is one I'm sure that won't be on the highlight reel for CITY's Jaziel Orozco. The CITY defender starts this sequence with an attempted long ball up the channel toward Simon Becher that RSL's Kobi Henry intercepts. As the ball pings around, Morgan Guilavogui finally controls it and plays it out to Saba Lobjanidze on the right.
Lobjanidze makes a nice pass across to a cutting Sergi Solans, who, much like his first goal, essentially has a wide-open tap-in past Lundt. Why was he so wide open? Because Orozco jogged the entire way back, never sprinting, never increasing his pace or positioning to get between Solans and Lobjanidze. It was a shocking defensive effort.
He's 9 feet behind Solans when the ball turns upfield, and he catches him as the RSL forward tries to stay onside, but as Solans begins his 49-foot sprint into the goal box, Orozco never reacts. The CITY defender was one of the bright spots in the early CITY season, but he hasn't matched that level of play since returning from injury. This was just a poor read and effort leading to the final RSL goal, and hopefully he can turn things around for the playoffs.
