Another St. Louis CITY SC rematch and a check in with Austin FC at a crossroads.

St. Louis CITY SC has quietly picked up the pace over the past month, but they’re entering the final match of the season’s first act needing a reset. 

Along with the long term injuries (Orozco’s hamstring, Célio’s knee, and Wallem’s suspension), Yoann Damet’s group was hit hard by Tuesday’s US Open Cup win:

Roman Bürki – Questionable

Sergio Córdova – Questionable

Sangbin Jeong – Questionable

They’ll pay that price every day of the week, but it does set up an interesting rematch with a potentially new look Austin FC. 

“I think the first game was a good turning point,” Yoann Damet said Thursday. “In the first part of the season, where we learned a little bit more about the group and ourselves. When we have to play every three days, when we're a little bit more fatigued, and the way we want to play. We're a team that asks a lot from the players with and without the ball, and when you have a little bit more tired legs, it's a little bit different, so you need to also understand those moments, and maybe adjust a little bit tactically.”

The big question ahead of this one will be:

Can the wrinkles CITY SC have found in recent weeks – sending Sangbin high into the wing as Conrad Wallem tucks into the midfield – work with Tomas Totland and Raphael Santos (I’m assuming) at wingback and Hartel and Löwen in the dual 10 role?

I wouldn’t be surprised if Damet has a curveball in him with so many players emptying the tank on Tuesday, but it’s two teams that will have more mystery about them than someone would expect 14 games into the season. 

Austin arrives in St. Louis after falling face-first in the aftermath of the 2-0 over St. Louis earlier this month. ATX cleaned house following a 5-0 loss against San Diego and a 1-2 home loss to Sporting Kansas City, firing both Sporting Director Rodolfo Borrell and Manager Nico Estévez. Those in the Austin-sphere will tell you that the change was long overdue, and now they travel to St. Louis looking for the first road win of the season.

I asked Verde All Day’s Phil West about this moment in Austin FC history, and what to expect with interim manager Davy Arnaud taking over just as he did following Josh Wolff’s firing before the final match in 2024. 

PW: Weirdly, Austin's front office kept Arnaud after firing Josh Wolff and then he just stayed on Estévez's staff. He's also a perfect 1-0-0 as an interim manager, baby! 

Certainly, I don't expect the team to institute much new in one shellshocked week, and I do think that the FO will try to get a coach in place to run a mini-preseason during the World Cup break ... and I'll take any one of Nancy, Jim Curtin, or Vanni Sartini, thank you very much. 

I don't think we're getting a half-season of Arnaud, though he has interim managed for a stretch while still with Houston. I also don't know that we're going to get a new coach bounce given how well-liked Estévez was. A new sporting director bounce, however, is absolutely possible!

Phil mentions some of it in that answer, but the vibe around the league is that Borrell was not a pleasant figure to be around.

So, that he was given such a long leash and the reign to spend as he did seemed odd from my perch here in St. Louis. 

PW: I knew headed down to the press conference following Austin FC's 2-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City that it'd be the last one with Estévez at home. When I asked about this match feeling like an inflection point for the season and the franchise, I didn't know we were going to get both Estévez and sporting director Rodolfo Borrell out the door 36 hours later, but it's probably for the best. 

Estévez had some good ideas for shoring up the defense when he came on board — a must for the team after two disastrous years — but his teams were never consistent offensively, even though they had some encouraging flashes throughout. Ultimately, what doomed Estévez is that, so far this season, the team's shed 14 points from goals given up from winning or drawing positions — meaning that if the defense just didn't collapse in the last 22 minutes of eight different contests, they'd have 28 points instead of 14, they'd be third in the West, and Verde probably wouldn't be looking for a new coach. 

While sporting director Rodolfo Borrell was here, he charmed a lot of people with his irascible Tio Rodo routine, and his ability to offload underperforming players with big contracts bought him some goodwill, given how utterly sideways the roster was when he got here. It is a better roster than how he found it, but it's still a weirdly built team, and Austin FC fans now seem ready for an American sporting director familiar with MLS who's done it before. (This was Borrell's first stint as a sporting director, and it ultimately showed.)

So, some optimism there for Austin as they embark on the process, St. Louis fans know all too well after this past year. VAD speculated – lets say wishcasted – what that process might look at for those interested in how the current outlook is perceived in market. 

So, here we head into the final match before a lengthy World Cup break with both sides looking forward to the time away, as well as a chance at a 2nd training camp before the return in July. 

Yoann Damet was particularly excited to have a block of training that won’t be interrupted by a match every 3 days.

“I think we get a good opportunity to refresh, to breathe a little bit, and also get some serious work done in the four weeks' time before the Sporting Kansas game.” Damet finished, “If you look at our past month, our past four weeks, we've played almost every three days, and you don't get that opportunity to actually work and develop the players, you're just maintaining, giving information, making sure the plan is there and the guys understand and have that clarity going into the game, but you're not actually pushing the players to their limits. You're not creating that environment where you can deliver more feedback, more demand on them, so having those four weeks is going to be amazing, I'm really excited.”

A win – and maybe one final look at a few players before the transfer window – would set them up well heading into that training block.

It would also bring on another first: the first win against a team that fired their manager heading into the match, which has bizarrely happened 3 times.