A convincing road win in San Jose last night runs CITY's unbeaten streak into double digits.
Daniel Edelman - Goal (8')
Let's look at how the scoring started: a Daniel Edelman goal in the 8th minute. Sang-bin receives Durkin's pass out on the wing, and while the ball is travelling, Wallem begins his run and calls for the pass as he clears into space. An excellent read of where the Quakes defenders were and the empty area on the right side of the box.
Wallem's run splits the two SJ players, and Sang-bin delivers a perfectly weighted ball into space that Wallem crucially allows to run past instead of stopping the ball directly. This enabled him to continue running as the ball passed, putting himself in an attacking position instead of receiving the ball directly with momentum carrying him away from goal.
Wallem then runs onto and gathers the ball, makes a very nice cutback, and spots Edelman making a run towards goal. His marker, Ronaldo Vieira, stopped moving and began ball watching, which, when combined with the movement of the other Quakes defenders, created a passing lane for Wallem.
Wallem's pass is on the mark, and Edelman holds himself up just enough to angle himself correctly to slot it home for a 1-0 CITY lead. An excellent play by Wallem to create this scoring chance.
Simon Becher #1 - Goal (27')
Not a ton of analysis required on CITY's second goal last night, a header from Simon Becher off an Eduard Löwen corner. A beautifully curved ball from CITY's #10 finds Becher alone in space in the box, a result of some very poor marking by San Jose.
Becher is bracketed by Daniel Munie (#5) and Reid Roberts (#18), but as the ball is struck, Munie ball watches and Roberts is caught in-between, with a slight movement towards Dante Polvara but not nearly enough to contest Becher, who gives Munie a slight push to clear space and is all alone for the header.
Pretty simple - nice cross, nice header, and poor marking equals a 2-0 CITY lead.
Beau Leroux - Goal (47')
San Jose's goal last night also doesn't need much analysis, as sometimes a dude just makes a really nice play, you tip your cap, and you move on.
Beau Leroux takes Timo's contested attempt at a clearance header of a Timo Werner free kick one-time and hammers it past Roman Bürki. A very difficult shot, especially from a completely stationary position, which Leroux executed perfectly.
Sure, maybe you could take issue with no CITY defender closing down on Leroux, but given the positioning and momentum that had carried all of them towards goal, it's doubtful any CITY player could have meaningfully disrupted what was just a really nice strike from Leroux.
Simon Becher - Goal #2 (55')
Finally, in what the LEGO movie referred to as the "Piece of Resistance", Simon Becher's second goal to put this one to bed for CITY in yet another win in San Jose, a place they've never failed to win.
A great quick restart by Timo finds Totland making a long run upfield, marked by San Jose's Jack Jasinski. The ball ticks off Jasinski's head, towards the left side of the box and a completely immobile Quakes GK Angus Gunn - why Gunn chose to retreat rather than make a play on the ball was confusing live and even moreso on further review. Could he have beaten Totland to the ball? Probably not a 100% guarantee, but most likely a play he should have tried to make.
Regardless, Totland gathers the ball, Jasinski stops his momentum instead of closing down Totland completely, and Tots flips a nice cross to Becher, who had called for the ball and split San Jose's Jamar Ricketts (#2) and Reid Roberts (#18), catching them both ball watching. This was especially egregious from Ricketts, who had Becher in front of him and simply stopped moving, allowing Simon to make a very nice play.
This was a difficult finish that Becher did a fantastic job on, full credit to him, and CITY finished a statement match with a convincing 3-1 win.
