Carlos Holse and a look ahead at St. Louis CITY SC vs RSL

ST. Louis CITY SC is on the doorstep of a new beginning.

The last time the club won five straight, Bradley Carnell was leading his expansion squad out of the gate, and CITY SC used that five-match stretch to finish first in the West despite underlying numbers that pointed to an unsustainable run.

Things have been different this time around. 

Under Yoann Damet, CITY SC were underachieving their underlying numbers earlier in the season, and now, they’ve charged into seven straight unbeaten in MLS play with a confidence that backs up the numbers. Only Inter Miami has been a better team over that stretch, while only Portland and LAFC have had better underlying numbers during that stretch. St. Louis is even slightly outscoring their expected goals for the first time all season. 

Those facts would be encouraging on their own after the past three seasons, but this is all happening as Corey Wray and his staff have been hard at work to increase the top-end talent of his group.

Welcome to St. Louis, Carlo Holse.

CITY SC welcomed their new Designated Player to town this week, and the 27-year-old Danish attacker had a lot of praise for the club’s efforts in convincing him to spend his prime years at the club. 

“We started speaking about a month ago. I had a call with Corey. I had a call with Yoann. He described the project, his playing style, and where he could see me fit in that project. I was pretty sold after that first talk with Yoann. Yeah, crazy tactics, crazy, yeah. I sound like a magician, but he really sold me on that one.”

Holse went on to describe the impact of Assistant Sporting Director Ally Mackey visiting his family in Copenhagen, speaking with his wife about life in the US, life in St. Louis, and how the club has made it easier for players and their young families.

“People in the U.S. are so sweet, so kind, talkable. So it's been an amazing few days. A lot of new impressions, a lot of new things that I have to take care of. It's not like moving to the U.S., and everything's okay. It's a lot of things, and so nice people and the squad have been amazing, taking care of me.”

Speaking to his role in Damet’s system, Holse felt confident that his flexibility in multiple roles will be of good use to Damet as the manager looks to add to his toolbox. 

Holse is a left-footed attacking midfielder with similar movement characteristics to Marcel Hartel, except with a tendency to drift in the opposite direction. Whereas Hartel prefers to move to his left before cutting into the middle, Holse has shown the propensity to do the opposite, which should play well when the two DPs are deployed as the dual tens later this season. 

Holse brings a similar energetic buzz to Hartel, even covering more ground with more sprints per match than Hartel over the past season. Still, the main difference between the two is that Holse gives Yoann Damet a big weapon that he has been looking for since preseason: a left-footed attacker who can ping shots at the top of the box, and that is something that Holse has in spades.

“It's a matter of understanding each other, understanding what he can do, and how we can do it together,” Damet said. “He's been used to certain ways in his previous experiences. But he showed me that he's a flexible player. He's also very smart tactically. So, I don't think it's going to take too long. But it's a matter of how we want to use him. What the game plans are going to be, games can change. But he's very flexible. He can play in different positions. He could play out wide, he could play as a second forward, he could play as a 10, he could play in the double pivot. He's very versatile, which I said many times; I really enjoy.”

Is Corey Wray done?

Wray still has a U22 and some roster spots to play with – on top of the rumored salary cap/roster rule simplification that will be presented at the Board of Governors meeting this week – but played his cards close to his chest on Thursday. 

“We have short-term objectives to achieve the best season we can given all the changes that have occurred,” Wray said, “So, we will utilize any mechanisms that are available if the right player comes along. What we do know is that with the short-term objectives, I'm not going to start to jeopardize the long-term. We've seen tremendous growth in the squad. We've seen a new style of play, but we also need a little bit of time to settle down and make a deeper assessment of how all these new pieces are going to fit together. If the right opportunity comes, we're certainly not going to be done.”

Wray is trying to toe the line between opportunistic and long-term vision. 

The opportunity to convince Hugo Cuypers that CITY SC would be a good landing spot for the Golden Boot leader was too much to pass up, even as the pursuit of Holse was hitting full speed ahead. If CITY SC can convince Cuypers to choose them over Rayados, would the Holse move wait until winter? Or would they move on from Hartel, who has been a top attacking midfielder in MLS this season? 

What it does mean is that Wray will always be looking for ways to lift the talent level in his roster and will snatch at an opportunity to bring in a player that fits with the current goals but will also consider the long-term plan before bringing in a player that might not fit with what Yoann Damet is building. 

So far so good. 

It might be too early to say that Wray missed on bringing Mbacke into the mix this fall, but he makes up for that miss by hitting on Lukas MacNaughton, Dante Polvara, and Daniel Edelman as players who have played big roles over the first half of the season. The floor is higher than it was last season, and while there is still a scoring deficit at the top of the lineup, CITY SC can manage that hole since Simon Becher is a positive in other areas of his game. 

There’s also a chance that CITY SC aren’t done selling in this window as well. Surely, they don’t sell JGR without the plan to fill that U22 spot eventually, but if they’re worried about losing flexibility before they see CITY SC’s competition window as truly open, then maybe they find that flexibility through a sale of a player like Sangbin Jeong. 

The 24-year-old South Korean occupies an interesting spot in Damet’s 3-4-2-1 as the only 9.5-type player, but he also looks like a new player after falling behind his development curve over the last two seasons. If an offer comes in for Sangbin, St. Louis would consider it with the attacker on the last 6 months of his current U22 contract. 

“When we first came here, a lot of things needed to be adjusted and tweaked to align with our new identity and style of play. So we took the time to add to the squad and really raise the floor as much as we could, and that was intentional.” Wray continued. “We didn't utilize a lot of our discretionary spend. We kept flexibility open. We acquired a lot of resources in terms of GAM to line up now to these windows to start to be a little bit more strategic about the addition. So we are here now at what I would say is the beginning of the ‘lifting the ceiling’ phase, while continuing, when possible, to elevate and raise the floor.”

St. Louis fans were convinced that Wray wasn’t going to find the talent needed to improve the roster in this window, but three weeks later, it is clear that Wray and his staff are still in the market for deals that will fit the long-term vision. 

It helps expectations when Yoann Damet has earned some benefit of the doubt over the unbeaten stretch; the alignment between the manager and the front office’s objectives is obvious.  

Looking ahead to RSL:

The biggest test in CITY SC’s desire to win 12 out of 12 points post-World Cup break comes as Real Salt Lake visits Energizer Park on Saturday. St. Louis will have a mostly healthy lineup at their disposal, most likely going without Jaziel Orozco, who injured his hamstring late in last week’s win over Colorado, and Brandan McSorely, who injured his ankle in his spot start for CITY2 last weekend. 

Meanwhile, RSL haven’t looked themselves following the World Cup break and will now miss Morgan Guilavogui following his 34th-minute red card last weekend in Portland. RSL have been one of the worst teams in MLS since the restart, gaining just one point out of three matches away from Utah. The trip to St. Louis won’t be any easier for them, but points off a red hot St. Louis side will keep them above water while Pablo Mastroeni works things out with his young star contributors. 

RSL have only scored one goal from open play during this three-match stretch, and it feels like a run that has to right itself eventually. Yoann Damet is certainly not taking the visitors lightly. 

“It's a case with Salt Lake; we know what they can do. And again, we respect every opponent we're playing against, and for us at this time, playing an opponent that is above us and that has been playing well this season is definitely a good challenge at this time.” Damet said of the challenge, “So we of course assessed a lot what we've done in the past three weeks and how we've worked since we came back. But at the same time, it's about improving. So, we spoke about the feeling of complacency. Looking at the next challenge ahead is the thing that keeps us going.”

St. Louis was on the verge of some really aesthetic soccer last week before Rob Holding’s Red Card, so it will be nice to see what Demet’s buildup will look like against a somewhat similar RSL side. Early on, Wallem was inverting to become the base of the buildup with Totland pushing into the wing on the opposite side.

That allowed Hartel to create with the left side overload while Sangbin pushed the lines, resulting in… well… you know the rest. 

Hosting RSL, Damet should field a similar starting XI, but most likely MacNaughton replacing Orozco and potentially a look at Edu Löwen either for Sangbin or for Durkin in the double pivot. Damet also seemed more confident in Alex Mațǎn’s fitness, so perhaps as a sub, along with last week’s hero in Tomáš Osrák. 

Although perhaps there will be a surprise in the offing.