In the raw moments after Saturday’s loss, St. Louis CITY SC’s second in as many weeks, Roman Bürki was understandably frustrated. Late in the second half of their 3-0 victory, the Seattle Sounders managed to break through CITY’s new 5-3-2 formation and put multiple balls past the St. Louis goalkeeper. For his part, Bürki was ready to be held accountable.
He was also willing to call out the teammates in front of him, acknowledge CITY’s shortcomings, and move on from two weeks’ worth of letdowns.
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“I would not say that it was a lack of energy,” said Bürki, diagnosing the factors that led to defeat. “It was more like we had a system that we haven’t really played before. It wasn’t easy for everyone just to play and not think too much.”
Bürki was pointing his finger at the 5-3-2 formation deployed by head coach Bradley Carnell, who went with the new-look lineup while sitting regulars Jared Stroud and Rasmus Alm.
In Bürki’s mind, St. Louis had strayed from the principles that had made CITY a must-watch team in Major League Soccer through the first five weeks. The high-pressure brand of “energy-drink” soccer merely fizzled, and St. Louis paid the price.
“We saw that in our pressing,” Bürki said. “It wasn’t the compact, all-the-way-out pressing that has made us look good so far this season. We need to work on that again, to just be confident in pressing all out, [and] put opponents under pressure so that they make a mistake and we don’t.”
Bürki’s dissatisfaction wasn’t eased by the idea that CITY had played well through the first 60 minutes. After taking responsibility for giving up Seattle’s second strike in the 71st minute, the Swiss keeper suggested that his team has spent recent weeks and months developing a standard of play. Straying from that standard was what doomed St. Louis to a second consecutive defeat.
“To be honest, we should not adapt too much to the opponent,” Bürki said. “We should play our game because it doesn’t matter what opponent we play. When you look at the first few games, we played our style and were successful. We are professionals. I don’t want to hear that we’re a team that goes out and loses to ‘good’ teams. We need to step up, we need to bring the energy back, be a little more humble, and look at what we can do better every day in training.”
On the other hand, you have to try to play in a new formation for it to be part of your tactical toolbox. WIth that in mind, Carnell pushed back against any notion that CITY’s formation caused an issue for his team.
“We looked at a lot of video on our opponents, and it made sense for many, many reasons,” Carnell said. “I think you could see those reasons in the first half. So, it was a mature performance from us in being able to take in new information and being very difficult to play against in the first half. It’s a credit to Seattle. They stuck to it and they’re a tough team to play against.”
Bürki’s comments were the words of a candid captain who is frustrated by failure. You could argue they were perfectly timed. The club has indeed spent the early weeks of the spring establishing not just a standard of play, but a culture in the dressing room and beyond. Bürki, the most established player of the group, has done it all in this sport, and his presence and intensity illustrate why CITY trusted him as its first captain.
He is willing to say what’s on his mind, both on the good nights and the difficult ones. Right now, for a team trying to learn how to bounce back from adversity together, a little tough love and some hard truths from the mouth of a veteran might be just what St. Louis needs.
