St. Louis CITY SC are on the door step of history
Bradley Carnell's men are one win away from making expansion history, but it is still business as usual.
“We haven’t accomplished anything yet.”
Bradley Carnell’s refrain Thursday afternoon was predictable, the manager is never one to dwell on accomplishments as they come, instead his squad is focused on one thing.
Winning.
“We've enjoyed the book so far but this group feels like we've not accomplished anything yet.”
In a world where the MLS regular season means less and less, Carnell is probably correct in a way. CITY SC are only one first round upset away from being meme’d into oblivion, and the “welcome to MLS” crowd has been sharpening their pitch forks, waiting for the upstarts to fall on their face.
However, Saturday offers a final chance to prepare for the playoffs, and Seattle will be desperate to take home three points from CITYPARK. A matchup that should make for an intense 90 minute heavy weight battle.
CITY SC can not be looking ahead to the playoffs or risk ending the season on a question mark, with a Sounder’s club that could write the blueprint for winning in St. Louis.
“We believe we can beat anyone.”, Sounders manager Brian Schmetzer would say in his press availability Thursday morning.
It all leads to an environment that is both celebratory, and hungry to prove that they deserve the number one seed.
The sense around the club is that there is some unfinished business after how the boys in red lost at Lumen Field back in April.
“We’re a different team now than we were back on match day seven”, Carnell opined.
MVP candidate, Roman Bürki would come to the table with a similar mentality.
“I'm not really looking at stats, I just want to do my job during the week and have a good feeling on Saturday. We know the qualities Seattle has, but if the whole team is working defensive wise, I'm not too worried."
Bürki is never too high or too low, a mentality that seems to weave its way through the very fabric of the club’s CITY Red shirt.
"I was never thinking about being in the MVP discussion or having the goalkeeper of the year in front of my eyes but all I can do is show up and play my game. We just focus on what's in front of us."
All signs point to a club that will be ready to give the 22,500 at CITYPARK a reason to celebrate.
"Now they have to come here in front of our fans and how we play at home, how we feel at home, and we are looking forward to it."
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