CITY kept the unbeaten streak alive last night, moving to 16 straight unbeaten across all competitions as they handled Minnesota United. Let's break down the goals from open play:
Tomás Chancalay - Goal (5')
Last night's opening goal from Minnesota United was completely against the run of play, as CITY had dominated for the first few minutes of the match. Here, however, CITY saw a Carlo Holse pass into space for Dante Polvara arrive just a moment too late - Polvara chose to let the ball come to him rather than step to it.
This allowed Kelvin Yeboah to make a play on the ball, and Polvara slips as he goes off-balance trying to keep Yeboah on his hip. I didn't think at the time it was a foul, and seeing it in replay I think that's not the type of foul that an aggressive CITY defense would want called against them, so it's ok that it wasn't called here.
As the ball squirts out to Will Trapp, Minnesota's Tomás Chancalay reads it very well and begins his sprint upfield even before Trapp's pass to Joaquín Pereyra. Pereyra sees Chancalay making his run and plays a nicely weighted ball just past the outstretched foot of Timo Baumgartl, enabling Chancalay to run onto the ball at pace.
Chancalay had blown past Jaziel Orozco, who wasn't at full stride when Chancalay went past, and it looked like he hesitated slightly in expectation of Timo making a play on the ball. This gave Chancalay all the space he needed, and he slid the ball past Bürki before Orozco could recover.
This was a lapse of awareness by Orozco, coupled with an excellent read and run by Chancalay and a nice pass from Pereyra to give the Loons a 1-0 lead.
Daniel Edelman - Goal (18')
CITY got on the board thanks to Daniel Edelman, who is making a habit of crashing the goal area hunting rebounds. Here, he has excellent recognition of this Carlo Holse shot from outside the box, which took a slight deflection - not very noticeable from the broadcast, but was very clear in person from my angle behind the goal in the Supporters Section. This tip caused the ball to change direction just slightly, which contributed, along with the pace of the shot, to Minnesota keeper Drake Callender being unable to handle it cleanly.
Edelman makes his move towards goal as the shot is in the air, and he's much faster to react than Minnesota's nearest defender Michael Boxall, who at this point may as well have been in quicksand. Edelman found himself all alone and one-timed the ball past a helpless Callender to tie the score at 1-1. A great read off of a well-taken shot from Holse gave Edelman another "dirty goal", something he's becoming known for here.
Carlo Holse - Goal (22')
One of CITY's two new Designated Players got on the board last night with a beautifully curved shot from just inside the penalty area. After initially losing the ball, Conrad Wallem does a nice job of battling back for it, but as Minnesota heads upfield, the outlet pass is behind Will Trapp and too far in front of Joaquín Pereyra, allowing Fallou Fall to stretch back and lunge to deflect the ball to a backtracking Rafa Navarro.
Navarro turns upfield, and immediately Carlo Holse, in space on the right wing, calls for the ball. As Navarro drives upfield, it draws the focus of Minnesota's defense - they aren't going to let CITY's new star beat them off the dribble, so they collapse towards him - freeing space in front of Conrad Wallem to Navarro's right. Navarro slides the ball to Wallem, who has 3 options - dribble into the center of the penalty area, hit a shot from the top of the box, or lay the ball off to Holse.
As the MLS 360 crew pointed out last night, Wallem doesn't pass it hard to Holse, instead sliding it into space in expectation of the shot, which Holse hit absolutely perfectly, curling the ball past a diving Drake Callender. It was a wonderful strike from Holse off an outstanding pass weighted correctly from Wallem to give CITY the lead.
Rafael Navarro - Goal (38')
Not a lot to unpack here - Holse had a reputation in Türkiye of being an outstanding passer of the ball, and after he surveys the field here, he makes a long stretch pass to Navarro, who was making a run between three United defenders.
Navarro makes the type of play you pay $12.5 million for - a perfect flick off the bouncing pass over an onrushing Drake Callender, as CITY's new #9 showed off his touch. Navarro has been everything CITY fans could have possibly hoped for so far, combining his incredible work rate with his skill and finishing ability. A wonderful finish here for the Brazilian gave CITY a 3-1 lead.
