CITY SC have lessons to learn after a successful trip to Cascadia

The pressure was on St. Louis CITY SC – well, as much pressure as can be on a 14-match unbeaten run – heading into the late night at Providence Park. Scoreboard watching did not grant St. Louis supporters any favors, and after Wednesday night, the climb up the Western Conference table does not look any easier.

CITY SC needed a win to keep pace with a top 4 spot in sight, and the draw dropped Yoann Damet’s side to 6th. The table is tight, but despite advancing to 15 unbeaten across all competitions, St. Louis still has work to do over the final 10 matches of the season. 

That pressure was temporarily released on the opening attack. Tomas Totland pushed forward from a loose ball, and his pass into the box was deflected right to Rafael Navarro as he crashed into the goal. 

If the hypothesis behind signing Navarro was that Yoann Damet’s system creates enough chances that CITY SC have just needed a striker who can muscle his way into those spots, then it’s looking prescient. Navarro pulled his defender to the far post and easily knocked home the opening goal.

Damet also stretched his legs with some formation tweaks throughout the match. 

At times, the 3-4-2-1 was the traditional box midfield with either Navarro or Sangbin leading the lines, but the added tweak was that the midfield diamond also made a comeback. It was different from the configuration that tore Vancouver apart just last weekend, where instead of Carlo Holse at the tip with Simon Becher stretching the line, it was Navarro that tracked back into the midfield while Sangbin ran off his shoulder into space.

It didn’t always work, but CITY SC’s tactical variability continues to be why teams haven’t “figured them out” just yet, and while Rafael Santos was more limited in his role out wide than the Totland/Wallem pairing, his defensive work rate kept Portland from finding too much success in the wide spaces or on back post runs.

After Kristoffer Velde equalized on a miraculous free kick in the 33rd minute, St. Louis were left searching for answers. Into the 2nd half, they found what they were looking for when Navarro beat everyone to the box while Alex Mățan danced through defenders and corralled a ball into Navarro. The Brazilian only had to head it home from 6 yards out for his first brace in his first St. Louis start.

“Alex [Mățan] is a great player. I think he’s top level.” Navarro beamed afterwards. “I really enjoy playing with him. We have a great connection already, and I’m looking forward to playing with him more often.”

Unfortunately, St. Louis wouldn’t hold on to the lead. 

3 big chances on the night from 5 dangerous attacks, but outside of those moments, the match ground to a halt. The Timbers weren’t much better, failing to register a shot on target inside the CITY SC box and only hitting the target once from open play, which led to the feeling of a missed opportunity among Damet and his players.

At the end of the night, St. Louis were undone by two immaculate Kristoffer Velde free kicks. That’s the way the ball bounces sometimes, but if St. Louis can hold on to late leads against Dallas and Portland, they would have woken up in 3rd place on Thursday, a tough pill to swallow.

This is where St. Louis’s midfield depth at the moment comes back to haunt them a bit; it’s hard to judge with the amount of yellow cards in crucial positions — would Totland or the outside CBs be more aggressive without the early yellows? — but Portland were able to run downfield with momentum following CITY SC’s 2nd goal has been a recurring issue.

Some of that is game state on the road, some of that is general fatigue, but if CITY SC has more options to replace the Edelman/Durkin pairing, then there could be more control of the Timbers’ ability to counter through the middle of the pitch… or maybe St. Louis just has to keep possession more often.

It might take more time.

In the meantime, not many teams have been able to grab back to back results on the road in Cascadia this season. Whitecaps are now 7-1-3 at home and the Timbers are 6-3-3. CITY SC are a large proportion of those blemishes; meanwhile, they haven’t lost on the road since May 3rd, the last time they lost at all.

“When you concede two free kicks tonight, it is frustrating and disappointing.” Damet said, “But at the end of the day, we also have to take a step back and realize what we did in the past two games. We had a high energy game on Saturday that cost us a lot. We stayed on the road and played again tonight in a tough place, so for as much as we are all disappointed, we also know how much work we've put in, and I think there is also a feeling of pride for the work we've put in those two games and getting four points on the road.”

Despite falling to 6th in the table, CITY SC are still closer to Houston in 2nd than Colorado in 7th, and that’s a testament to how they’ve risen through the conference.

Standout performances:

The Navarro brace will win the headlines, but this is now assists in 3 of 4 for Alex Mățan (or 2 of 4, as the assist to Navarro was corrected, presumably for the deflection it took on the way in — similar to Totland not receiving credit on the first goal). Mățan has been the straw that stirs the drink over the past few matches, especially on this trip to Cascadia. 

While not to the same extent, Mățan’s tendency to take players on has replaced some of what Hartel brought to Damet’s attack when it was humming this summer. 

While St. Louis lost the lead late, it wasn’t for a lack of true depth options. Fallou Fall has worked his way back into the rotation, after he appeared as a wingback in stoppage time in Vancouver, Fall returned for his longest appearance since the 3-0 win vs Austin when he replaced Dante Polvara in the 64th minute. 

On Fall, Damet praised the strength of players like Falou who haven’t played many minutes lately. 

“He came up very strong against Vancouver on Saturday and tonight again like being very strong is is a big positive that reinforces the the group and the feeling that everybody is there to to contribute.” Damet said. “I'm very happy we've got a group of like 25 plus guys that are fighting for the for the team and and that's what we wanted to create since day one and I think everybody is taking a lot of a lot of pride in in that collective effort and in what we can achieve together”

Damion Downs also made his 2nd appearance for a total of 1 minute and stoppage time. He hasn’t found himself on the scoresheet but the early returns have been 2 tricky moments in stoppage time worth 0.34 xG. That’s a good start for a player who has lacked confidence over the past year, if Downs can continue to test tired backlines, that scoring record will change and CITY SC will reap the benefit as they search for late match difference makers.

Damet certainly took notice, “The last 10 minutes of the game were unbelievable for me. The five minutes of added time, the way we pressed, the way we stayed on the front foot, the way we kept putting pressure on them instead of dropping deep like most teams would do and trying to fight for our life.”

Now, CITY SC will set their eyes to Minnesota on Saturday.

The Loons have struggled lately, just two wins in MLS play since May, but their underlying numbers betray their lack of results. They’ve been a hard out, but poor finishing has been their undoing, despite Kelvin Yaboah’s 12 goals – and Anthony Markanich's 7 – this season...

In 2025, MNUFC was known for their defensive record, but 2026 has been the inverse, the Loons are leaking chances and are tied with Cincinnati for most penalties conceded this season, not ideal.

Even then, MNUFC have been better away from home, and even still, have never dropped points in St. Louis. Another ghost for Yoann Damet to cast out of CITY SC are to continue marching upward.

Forecasting the lineup may be tough, with Navarro US Open Cup tied, it’s a given that he will start vs Minnesota with Carlo Holse as one of the 10s after his 10 minute cameo on Wednesday.

There’s probably a need to rotate one of Durkin and Edelman as well, but then... does that sign Mǎțan up for four straight big roles through the midfield? 

Miggy Perez and Tomáš Ostrák could be back in the mix and Zach Zengue could also rejoin the squad after his brace against SKC2 over the weekend. There are options but most are unproven, especially if Damet wants to toe the line between keeping everyone sharp and sving the best XI for Wednesday’s semifinal in Commerce City. 

There’s also the potential of a dual striker setup from the start. Damet wasn’t over the moon about Navarro and Becher’s time together after Wednesday’s draw but he was also adamant that it will take time to gel. 

“I see more room for improvement than things that are that are working well at the minute.” Damet said, “They're doing some some very interesting things, but we need to create those relationships, those connections. I'm looking forward to having a little bit more time to work with the guys and to explain exactly how we wanna do things.”

That revelation most likely means that Saturday won’t be the time for it, but it might be the answer to putting the best foot forward against a back 3 that has struggled to mark runners in the box in recent weeks.

Still, Damet has been more keen to rotate his squad given his newfound options, along with how poor the group looked when he ran out back to back XIs vs SKC last month. 

“At the end of the day, we can't we can't do the same thing and expect different results.” Damet said, “I'm more someone that is trying to find a solution, and we’re always looking at the glass half full. So like there, there was suspension. We spoke about it. There is also like a ton of games coming. There is the cup semifinal next week. So we need to take everything into consideration, and and we need some fresh legs. at the end of the day, what we do and what we demand from the the group is is really hard on the physical side, on the mental side, on the tactical and technical side, so we need also to to give freshness to the group. We need to have guys that are going to bring fresh energy in those midweek games. So that was a little bit our learning from from a couple of weeks ago.”

Another big one is on the horizon, welcome to the MLS grind. 

Anyways, Rafael Navarro was named to the MLS Team of the Matchday after his 11th and 12th goals of the season, now tied with Kelvin Yeboah just outside of the top 10 in the Golden Boot race.