La Murga Report – 3/9/24 vs. St. Louis CITY

Well lookee here, another Murga report! Saturday’s draw-that-felt-like-a-loss was pretty deflating, but it offered plenty to talk about around these parts (including what we believe are a couple of first occurences in Murga history, as we’ll explain below). But that’s enough chitchat, let’s get to the numbers!

What Songs Were Played, and How Many Times?

Random observations: Many fewer renditions of the “*clapclapclap* ATX” chant, which suggests to us that Murga found their groove early and hung on for the full 90. Impressive stuff so early in the season. Interestingly, “Pepas” was excluded from the first half entirely but was doubled up in the second half, which we believe has never happened before. It certainly feels that “McKalla” has been relegated to once-per-match status, which is obviously Murga’s prerogative but we would be sad were it ever phased out entirely.

What Songs Were Playing When Austin Scored

Random observations: Spoiler alert for the next section, but Austin’s second goal was scored during the same rendition of “512” as St. Louis’ first goal. Holy crap, y’all. In 3+ seasons, we have no record of that ever happening before. We had to watch the replay just to make sure that our notes were accurate, and we can confirm that this was indeed the case on Saturday night. Incredible.

(Side note to anyone who works at Apple TV: please turn up the field mics. They seem even quieter than they were last season, and they weren’t great then either. Thanks in advance.)

What Songs Were Playing When St. Louis Scored

Random observations: It’s been a tough start to the season for “Feliz Feliz,” which has now conceded goals in consecutive home matches. Also, the final (and point-dropping) version of “Feliz Feliz” was played well into stoppage time, which feels like an act of cruelty to every pair of aging knees in the supporter’s section. In related news, we are now purchasing Advil in bulk here at Fort Pennypacker.

As mentioned above, it was a real rollercoaster of a night for “512.” However, we should mention that the penalty that led to the first goal was committed as “Reloco Remamado” was playing. While this won’t affect the season totals, one can mentally affix an asterisk to this goal if they so choose.

Season Totals

Final Thoughts

It’s still early, but the trends are concerning for “Feliz Feliz.” We won’t panic yet but we’ll keep an eye on it in the coming weeks. But on the plus side, “Reloco Remamado” and “Let’s Go ATX” look to be taking advantage of their moments despite relatively infrequent usage.

Seven goals have been scored in Austin’s first two home games, which is the second-most through two matches in team history (behind only 2022, which featured an astounding eleven goals in the first two matches). The results may be suboptimal, but at least we are building a decent data set.