In the last segment of St. Louis City SC’s practice session Tuesday, the team played a short-field game, during which forward Samuel Adeniran scored twice.
“Yeah, that was fun to get back out there and score goals in training,” he said after practice. “It feels good, but I’m ready to do it in the games.”
Adeniran could get his chance this weekend. After being held out of the team’s previous two games because coach Bradley Carnell was dissatisfied with his work rate, Adeniran rejoined the team during last week’s short bye week of practice, and on Tuesday, he spoke to reporters for the first time since first being held out of a game.
“It’s life,” he said. “Just been doing my job, staying fit, doing what I can do, controlling what I can control.”
Both Adeniran and Carnell have been tight-lipped in what they’ve said about Adeniran’s situation. (Carnell joked that while he understood the interest in the situation, what happened “wasn’t that interesting.”) Adeniran wasn’t on the roster for the team’s game with Austin on April 14 in what was termed a coach’s decision, and he watched the game from the stands. When practice resumed on April 16, Adeniran wasn’t there.
“Right now, we’re focusing on the guys who bring a certain standard, intensity, work ethic in training, and those players will get rewarded,” Carnell said that day. “Sam, until further notice, will be training on his own.”
Neither expanded on the situation Tuesday.
“Don’t really want to get too much into that,” Adeniran said. “I kind of just want to focus on the next game because that’s what’s most important. Think the past is the past and just got to kind of leave stuff in the past.”
Asked if he and Carnell had turned the page, Adeniran said, “Well, I mean, I’m here, I’m here with the guys, so yeah, I mean, if you want to look at it like that, yeah. I guess.”
“Sam is back,” Carnell said. “He’s training.”
When he was first dropped from the game-day roster, at a time when City SC didn’t have enough available players to suit up the permitted 20, Adeniran was tied with Celio Pompeu for the team lead in goals with two. Adeniran scored in the team’s first two Major League Soccer games, building on a solid 2023 season where he had eight goals and one of the highest goals-per-90-minutes rates in the league. Adeniran hasn’t scored since the first two games.
Adeniran didn’t make it sound as if he had made any changes to get back into practice, in terms of intensity or work ethic in training.
“Nothing really,” he said. “I just did my job. That’s really all I did. Yeah, just was here for the team and did what I was supposed to do. ... I think I do pretty much the same thing that I’ve always done, and that’s come out here and give 100% for the team.
“I kind of just look at life as, you take it one step at a time and one day at a time. So I mean, for me, I’m just focused on being the best player I can be today and then I know that’ll lead me into a better tomorrow.”
Though Adeniran will have gone almost a month between matches and has had only four practice sessions with the team in the past 2½ weeks, Carnell thinks it won’t be hard for Adeniran to be ready to play.
“Yeah, I don’t see any cause for concern there,” Carnell said. “We are pros in this industry. Yeah. I don’t see any concern.”
The timing is good on several fronts for Adeniran to return. He’s from Houston, so it would be a chance to play in front of family and friends again. The teams met twice in the CONCACAF Champions Cup at the start of the season, and in those two meetings, City SC used a two-striker formation; if the team’s opinion on the best way to attack Houston hasn’t changed, Adeniran is an essential piece of the puzzle.
If nothing else for Adeniran, he feels the two games missed were a good test of his mental strength.
“Definitely,” he said. “Yeah. I mean, if you’re not mentally strong, you’re not going to survive in this sport because there are a lot of things that happen in life that are unfair. There are a lot of things that happen in life that are hard, but you know, you just got to push through it.”
