I was on vacation during CITY's trip last weekend to Vancouver, and then I was fortunate enough to be in Portland for CITY's Wednesday matchup against the Timbers, so I'm finally catching up on the video breakdowns for each match. Let's look at the goals from open play:
CITY 3 - Vancouver 1
Emmanuel Sabbi - Goal (2')
Vancouver jumped to an early lead via an unforced error from Daniel Edelman, but the entire sequence started with an uncalled foul on Alex Mățan, who was literally being held directly in front of the referee but was able to slide the ball to Wallem. One of the things about the Damet system when playing from the back is providing multiple outlets - MacNaughton had Wallem, Durkin, and Edelman to choose from and his pass to Durkin was then directed to Wallem.
Wallem played it back to Durkin, who switched it over to Dante Polvara, who played it up the wing to Totland. Here's where the positioning lets CITY down - because of the switched ball, most of the CITY players were still on the right side of the pitch, meaning that instead of having multiple options for distribution, Totland only had Edelman, who, when he received the pass, was surrounded by four Whitecaps players. This isolation made it much easier for Vancouver to close down on Edelman, and with no options upfield (Totland didn't make a run up the sideline after his pass), Edelman attempted to play the ball back to Polvara, but his pass was intercepted by Emmanuel Sabbi.
Sabbi turns upfield, and hits a very nice left-footed shot from the top of the penalty area past an outstretched Roman Bürki into the bottom left corner. This was a positioning goal as much as anything - Totland had only one option for a pass (Edelman) and Edelman had essentially no one to make an easy outlet to. CITY correctly switched the ball but didn't rotate in time and left themselves vulnerable - and Vancouver took advantage.
Simon Becher - Goal (23')
CITY found an equalizer twenty minutes later via an absolutely perfect through ball from Alex Mățan. Carlo Holse makes a nice play to find Mățan in space, and when he turns upfield, has Totland out to his left on the wing and four Whitecaps defenders in front along with Becher. What he also has is Mathías Laborda (#2) keeping Becher onside - he was positioned just slightly back of the rest of the Whitecaps defensive line.
Mățan's pass perfectly splits Laborda and Tristan Blackmon (#33), Becher collects and slides it nicely past Whitecaps GK Yohei Takaoka. Just an outstanding distribution from the CITY midfielder and a calm, composed finish from Becher to tie the match 1-1.
Tomas Totland - Goal (41')
CITY found a go-ahead goal from Tomas Totland, with this sequence starting from yet another fantastic pass by Alex Mățan. Bracketed by two Whitecaps defenders, he finds a wide open Daniel Edelman, who collects the ball in space as he heads into the Whitecaps half.
Edelman plays the ball to Wallem and then makes a 100+ foot run all the way into the box. Wallem shows nice patience here, waiting for Edelman's run into space as he lays the ball off to him. Edelman takes a glance over his shoulder and hits an angled ball first time back across the box, playing it into space where an onrushing Tomas Totland beats a flat-footed Rayan Elloumi to the ball and slots it home for a 2-1 lead. Totland was 25+ feet behind Elloumi when Edelman made the pass, but Elloumi misread the ball and hesitated, giving Totland time and space to put CITY on top. Great initial pass from Mățan, excellent hustle from Edelman, nice patience from Wallem, and a good finish from Totland - about as "team" as a "team goal" can get.
Conrad Wallem - Goal (45')
CITY put a bow on an incredible first half with the aid of yet another fantastic play from Mățan (what a pickup he's been), giving Emmanuel Sabbi a head fake that left the Vancouver midfielder so far out of position that it let Mățan drive upfield with options to either play the ball to Holse, to Totland on the outside, Totland on the inside, or Becher.
He chose Totland on the inside, placing another perfectly weighted pass through to the CITY wingback. This time, it's Tristan Blackmon keeping Totland onside. Totland has his head up, seeing what help he has in the box and it looks like he's attempting to play the ball to Edelman, who is all alone in space, but the ball is behind Edelman - however, Conrad Wallem was trailing a bit and had nothing but time and space to collect the ball and drive it into the corner.
Once again, Mățan makes the right decision, and it leads to another CITY goal. His 7.79 match rating could/should have been even higher, as this was his finest match yet for St. Louis.
CITY 2 - Portland 2
Rafael Navarro - Goal (1')
CITY's newest DP #9 made an immediate impact in this one, with Kamal Miller's pass being intercepted by Totland - it looked like Miller never saw him lurking behind Sang-bin, and Miller's attempted outlet pass to Jimer Fory (#27) was cutoff nicely by the CITY wingback.
As Totland carries the ball into the edge of the penalty area, he has Sang-bin (near) and Navarro (middle) to play the ball towards. Sang-bin was openand Navarro covered, but Totland's cross was deflected slightly by Miller, spinning the ball toward goal where Navarro had inside position on Portland's Eric Miller (#15) and flicked it on goal as Miller dragged him down.
A bit of a fortunate deflection here, but Navarro did what you want your striker to do - be in the right position to have scoring opportunities and convert those opportunities into goals when they present themselves.
Rafael Navarro - Goal (45+6')
Pretty straightforward here - Santos plays a pretty decent ball to a streaking Mățan, who made a really slick hestitate-and-go move on Portland's Finn Surman (#20) and plays a ball towards goal. He also had a completely wide open Totland near the PK dot, but his ball is deflected up into the path of Navarro, who makes probably the easiest headed goal of his career.
Again, the CITY #9 is in the right place at the right time and converts, but it was Mățan's skill on the ball that made this play happen.
