Bradley Carnell is liking what he sees ahead of intrasquad scrimmage

“I don’t think there are any free weeks”, Bradley Carnell said after this morning’s training session, “We’re taking things pretty seriously, for us it’s business as usual with different focuses, but yeah, it’s business as usual.”

Bradley Carnell’s squad is always ready to work.

Even as Carnell answered questions, Nökkvi Thórisson could be seen working on cutting into the box and shooting from the wing behind him, “Good work gets rewarded.”.

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St. Louis CITY SC is focused on next Saturday’s match with Seattle, but there’s a noticeable buzz around the club that goes beyond the upcoming 1 vs 2 matchup.

Some of that buzz speaks to the spirit of competition that the club has cultivated, with CITY playing a blended CITY2/Academy team on Saturday.

“It’s a young CITY2 group with some dynamic young attacking individuals that will make things fun. It’s something we believe in, it’s something that we don’t get many opportunities with, and I just think back to the 2014 Germany team when they won the World Cup, and they had the u20 team train with them. Training that team as the opponent would and they used that team as prep, and that’s what we’re doing, using this as an element to prepare for Seattle.”

Seattle will offer an interesting challenge as CITY try and stay connected with their spot at the top of the conference sealed ahead of decision day.

Carnell shed some insight into his squad’s mentality heading into that match.

“We know that they’re difficult to play against, they have one of the best defensive records in the league, so for us it’s about preparing for the playoffs, but we absolutely want to win this game.”

Ahead of Seattle, academy product Carson Locker trained with the first team, earning some plaudits from Edu Löwen in the process, Carnell praising the 16 year old,

“Yeah, we’ve had young Carson Locker with us this week […] It’s nice to reward individuals for good play throughout the season, he’s come in with no respect and earned it.”

The former Scott Gallagher player certainly looked the part as he trained with the first team, including taking a few chances from the top of the box as CITY trained in the attacking third.

Locker isn’t the only young CITY player moving up this week, Miggy Perez and CITY2 captain Michael Wentzel were the latest CITY players to see some international recognition. Both were named as alternates for the upcoming u22 Pan-Am tournament, with Carnell feeling “postitive” about their chances to travel with the team as they take on Brazil, Honduras, and Columbia in the group stage next week.