CITY SC's Decision Day motion and MLS Awards Season.

Yoann Damet entered Decision Day with a few tricks left up his sleeve, and his starting XI in Houston provided a few surprises on the final day of the season. Alex Mǎțan and Roman Bürki were full participants in training this week, but only the Romanian made the bench in Houston.

The big surprise was Daniel Edelman’s spot on the bench and Carlo Holse’s night off, which left CITY SC weakened with plenty to play for on the final night of the regular season. 

“Coming out of 7 games in 21 days, what you guys need to understand is that those guys are beaten up physically and mentally,” Damet said. “We see these guys every single day in training, and the demand is to train 200% every single day.”

*As an aside, Carlo Holse’s absence meant that CITY SC was without an elite MLS player in the lineup. Only 4 players averaged both over 0.90 goal contributions and 0.90 expected goal contributions over the 2026 season – Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Tapia, Petar Musa, and Carlo Holse.*

CITY SC had a prime directive, to enter the playoffs with fresh legs and fresh minds, that they were also able to wrap up 3rd place in the table was icing on the cake. In fact, St. Louis wouldn’t need a win in Houston to pass San Jose in the table thanks to the Earthquakes’ loss in Minnesota, but the win still accomplishes a goal: it could move them above the New England Revolution in the CONCACAF club rankings.

In Houston, it wasn’t about the club’s Pot 1 dream; it was about finishing the year on a high note and not jeopardizing a hopeful playoff run. 

The match itself was everything you’d expect from a Houston vs. St. Louis matchup this season. Even with CITY SC’s rotated lineup, it was tight, level through 80 minutes like the two previous matchups but largely scoreless thanks to Ben Lundt and neither side’s ability to create a truly dangerous scoring chance.

Fortunately, CITY SC found the dangerous chance they needed in the dying embers of the season. After Alex Matan’s addition in the 65th minute, the tempo picked up considerably, and Daniel Edelman and Damion Downs subs tipped the scales for Yoann Damet’s side. 

The goal comes after a set of strong Ben Lundt saves at the other end. Lundt launched his goal kick deep, while Simon Becher and Lukas MacNaughton created the circumstances that delivered the opener 

“It's a nice way to wrap up the regular season,” Damet said. “Finish third on-decision day and to do it away, getting a clean sheet, scoring at the last minute, and having a very good performance on the road, I think was very important.”

The win gave the group a positive result to hang their hats on heading into the international break, but Damet isn’t buying that there is momentum heading into the playoffs. 

“I don't think momentum right now will carry over in two weeks,” Damet said. “We have two weeks now to prepare for the first game, and the playoffs are a different competition.”

Top Performances.

This wasn’t a “throw away game” in the purest sense, but the lineup and roster decisions make analyzing this match a fool’s errand. The team has already turned the page, and the Houston Dynamo obliged by not forcing the issue too much over a first half that saw 1 shot on target from either team. As the Dynamo found some success in the attack, Ben Lundt turned away the danger, and the lack of press to test Lundt’s ability playing into the attack meant St. Louis weren’t punished for resting 2 DPs on the final day of the season. 

This is how Damet would have liked the losses vs. Minnesota and RSL to go down.

Rest your important players who have been run into the ground over the final stretch of matches, while keeping the general level of play and commitment high. Instead, the level dropped, and CITY SC appeared to lose momentum in the aftermath of their US Open Cup win.

A win on Decision Day resets the narrative as St. Louis hosts a first round series at Energizer Park for the 2nd time. 

Damet was in a much better mood about his squad’s level on the weekend, and the easy to read conclusion is that Mykhi Joyner and Miggy Perez’s move down to train with CITY2 this week was largely in response to what Damet hasn’t seen in the homegrowns’ response from those two performances.

Instead, Charles-Emile Brunet, Riley Lynch, and Zach Zengue have moved into their spots in the depth chart. Lynch is offering a wingback option that can be loaned in, while Brunet and Zengue have looked somewhat up to the task in their appearances. It’s a tough moment for Joyner, who looked like he started to work his way into the rotation; for now, he’s on the outside looking in. 

Damet has not used him as a late game attacking option; instead, he turned to Zengue for his first team debut, and now Damion Downs has become the next choice attacking option. Downs hasn’t taken MLS by storm since arriving on loan from Southampton, but it is clear that he has the technique and physical characteristics to come on late and carry the ball forward. That has been Downs’s strength in Damet’s late match scheme, and while the scoring may never come thanks to the curse he picked up while leading Köln’s promotion campaign, his play is starting to tick up a bit. 

Downs’s play on Saturday – 4 touches, 2/2 passing, 1 header off target, 1 clearance, 1/1 duels, and a big progressive carry – is far from enough to say that he’s been a success, but his raw numbers have started to look promising. 

Through 130 minutes, Downs has generated 0.55 expected goal contributions per 90 minutes, along with strong passing, dueling, and pressing rates. It’s still a small sample size, but the numbers are saying that Corey Wray’s idea to bring in Downs as insurance behind Becher and Navarro is starting to look good. If underlying numbers are a prediction of future performances, then Downs will score before the campaign is over, but it’s hard to see the type of chance he will need to make that happen. 

Downs is just window dressing for the performances that are more indicative of what is to come.

Chris Durkin was back to his old ways as he covered nearly every blade of grass in Houston. 2 chances created, and 88% passing along with his usually strong defensive numbers. 

Compare Durkin’s underlying numbers to a perennial Best XI defensive midfielder like Vancouver’s Andres Cubas and suddenly Durkin’s importance to St. Louis CITY SC’s run in 2026 comes into view.

As Durkelman goes, so goes CITY SC, as evidenced by the 1-1 draw against SKC going down as the only match since the win streak where CITY SC possessed a negative xGD when both midfielders started. Some qualifiers there but since the team has found comfortability within Damet’s system, the midfield has been the engine. 

Helped by the return of Alex Mǎțan who immediately proved why he's become important to CITY SC's attack.

Yoann Damet’s case for MLS Manager of the Year.

St. Louis’s rise through the rankings this season defied everyone’s expectations. In MLS’s own season preview, CITY SC’s average predicted finish was 11th place, and no pundit picked Damet’s side to finish above 8th place in the Western Conference. 

This isn’t where I decry the pundits; not even the most optimistic St. Louis soccer fans would have predicted a 21 match unbeaten streak, a US Open Cup run, and a 3rd place finish in the Western Conference.

This is, however, where I praise a manager who effectively established his new culture on day one.

Training camp kicked off with both Marcel Hartel and Roman Burki singing the praises of Damet’s communication and preparation, while Damet sang the praises of the group in front of him. Damet kicked off training camp impressed by the hunger of the group in front of him.

“All I’m asking of them is to show up, work hard, and keep an open mind,” Damet said on January 12th. 

It would take time to transform a group built on energy drink soccer into Damet’s structured 3-4-2-1 but as the weeks marched on players started to find ways to express themselves within an otherwise intensely structured system.

The elephant in the room is the player it was built around, Marcel Hartel. 

The German sprinted out of the gate with the keys to Damet’s attack. 

Hartel would have been a shoe-in in the MLS Best XI if his family situation in Germany didn’t require a dramatic summer exit. 

Even then, as Corey Wray facilitated the exits of Hartel, Teuchert, and Eduard Lowen, Damet kept the plane in the air en route to an MLS club record of 21 matches unbeaten across all competitions. The additions of Alex Matan, Carlo Holse, and Rafael Navarro helped power the group through some of its best soccer that culminated in lifting a trophy on a Wednesday night in Ohio. 

The US Open Cup run won’t be reflected in the EOY voting, and the subsequent dip in form may have lost him some votes as BJ Callaghan’s Nashville SC broke the MLS points record. 

It comes down to our interpretation of the award. 

Is Damet’s ability to completely transform St. Louis CITY SC in year one more impressive than Callaghan’s job taking Nashville from a borderline Cup contender to one of the best teams in MLS history? I think yes, knowing how broken the locker room was in 2025 and knowing the emotional journey as Ilona Lowen battled cancer, and the players stood by Edu Lowen’s side. 

Finishing 3rd in the Western Conference and breaking the league’s unbeaten record, while managing buy-in through all of that, was a miraculous effort.

Early preview of LAFC.

All of the good of this season will be viewed through a different lens if Damet's assertions about the last month are incorrect. If his squad’s struggles were more than simple exhaustion, then that run will be viewed as a group peaking too soon rather than a successful season in its own right. 

Against LAFC, that idea will be tested. 

The LAFC matchup may look tough for CITY SC on face value – especially compared to hosting Houston in the first round – but LAFC have not rebounded from firing Marc Dos Santos earlier this season. Despite bonafide superstars in Son and Bouanga, LAFC never really recovered from their post Concacaf Champions Cup dip in form earlier this season. There was better play but it was followed with another deep cavern following the club’s Leagues Cup failure. Since the Leagues Cup group stage, LAFC have won twice in 15 matches (2-7-6) and both were against non-playoffs sides (at home vs. RBNY and Austin FC).

Now, the underlying numbers say that LAFC’s form is a lie, this is still a great team but a look under the hood will tell you that they’ve still struggled against playoff teams. In their last 5 matches against teams above the playoff line, LAFC went 0-3-2 with a goal differential of -2 and a -0.5 expected goal differential.

Xavi Tamarit has failed to get the most out of a group that is thin after the summer sale of David Martínez and, now, the injury to Jacob Shaffelburg… but that isn’t the nail in their coffin. 

As long as LAFC can field a set of players who can take over a match on a moment’s notice, the form heading into the playoffs won’t matter, but it does make CITY SC’s home advantage that much more important. 

St. Louis’s move into 3rd place on Decision Day did establish CITY SC on a more advantageous side of the bracket. The reward for advancing to the 2nd round won’t be an immediate trip to Vancouver, instead they would either head to Dallas or host the Portland Timbers, only running into Vancouver in a potential Western Conference Final. 

A much better run-in compared to what could have been if they lost in Houston and dropped down to 5th place. 

Decision Day mattered.

MLS Year-End Awards ballot. 

Finally, my year end ballot has been weighing heavily on my mind over the past month. It’s been a long season and that’s led to some storylines going under the radar post-World Cup break.

So, let’s dive into the rationale behind my decisions. 

Newcomer of the Year: Antoine Griezmann

Antoine Griezmann saved Orlando’s season. 

Griezmann’s 21 goal contributions were enough to rank him 17th in the league in just over 1800 minutes. I fretted over whether Griezmann should qualify as a summer acquisition but that he’s played over half the season and was one of 4 players averaging over a goal contribution per match, the case is overwhelming. 

Griezmann would have garnered some MVP votes if he arrived in January. Before he arrived, Orlando City had fired a manager and were the worst team in the conference with an expected goal differential of -12.72 and an actual goal differential of -20. In the 19 matches since then, OCSC have a GD of 8 and an xGD of -4.96, meaning that Griezmann’s clinical finishing has helped Orlando overperform but their underlying performance has been markably better with the Frenchman leading the line next to Justin Ellis. 

Comeback Player of the Year: Eduard Löwen

There are not many players who could even imagine life in Edu Löwen’s shoes over the past 3 years. Löwen starred through St. Louis’s inaugural season in 2023 but soon after would need to take time away from the sport after his wife Ilona was diagnosed with cancer. Over the next 2 and a half seasons, Lowen would take time away from the team to support Ilona through her battle, often staying in St. Louis as the team played away from home. 

Ilona continued to fight a stage IV cancer diagnosis as Edu Löwen prepared for the 2026 season, but his mind was conflicted. Training had become an escape for Edu but every moment away from home continued to weigh heavily on his mind. 

Sadly, Ilona passed away on March 10th after a 2+ year fight. 

Unfortunately, the sport marches on, and when St. Louis returned to play at Energizer Park vs New England, fans held up signs in remembrance of Ilona Löwen.

“I’m not looking back and saying that I’ve done everything right,” Löwen said in his May 7th return press conference. “I’ve tried to sacrifice it all to love her and to care for her but at the same time when something like that happens you’re just thinking back to all of the missed opportunities of serving and loving her even more.”

Löwen's return to the pitch on April 18th in Seattle is what qualifies him as the 2026 Comeback Player of the Year.

Löwen scored just 3 minutes into his return in Seattle. Then, a week later, Löwen made his return to Energizer Park in a 5 minute appearance off the bench before thrashing home the game winning goal in CITY SC’s US Open Cup Round of 16 match vs. Chicago.

Despite those magical moments Löwen’s time in St. Louis came to a premature end. In August, he became San Jose’s newest Designated Player after it became clear that he wasn’t going to be an every match starter for Yoann Damet and contract negotiations stalled. Since arriving in San José, Löwen has 1 goal and 2 assists in 13 appearances mostly in the starting XI. 

Young Player of the Year: Cavan Sullivan

I mean… come on, who else could it be?

Cavan Sullivan isn’t just a great 17 year old MLS player, he’s a great player. Sullivan ranks 17th in g+ amongst all MLS players and his 12 goal contributions since the World Cup break ranks 16th amongst all MLS players. 

Even as uncertainty formed over his Manchester City transfer and the potential ramifications of the Premier League club’s punishment, Sullivan continued to help galvanize a Philadelphia Union squad who charged up from the bottom of the Western Conference following Ryan Richter’s appointment as interim manager. 

Goalkeeper of the Year: Matt Turner

The record books will remember the absurdity of the 2026 MLS season. Among the accolades of St. Louis’s 21 match unbeaten streak and Nashville’s 77 points will be Matt Turner, Brian Schwake, and Andrew Rick all besting Đorđe Petrović’s 2022 shotstopping numbers. 

All 3 keepers averaged -10.97 G-xG or better – a measure of the quality of goals saved against expected – clearing Petrović’s -10.75, but it was Turner’s -15.55 that set a new standard. 

The Revolution probably aren’t a playoff team without Turner’s goalkeeping, and his numbers are helped by his ability with the ball. Rick and Schwake’s g+ numbers are less than their pure shotstopping numbers while Turner adds value with his passing, fielding, and claiming value. 

Defender of the Year: Maxwel Woledzi

Nashville set a league record for a reason, and while the attack is dangerous, it’s the 25 goals against that make them the hardest team to play against. While Schwake is a big part of that, if his G-xG number is 0.00 then Nashville would still possess the best defensive record in the Eastern Conference. That largely lays on the shoulders of Woledzi and the backline be it Jack Maher or Jeisson Palacios. 

Manager of the Year: Yoann Damet

I laid out my rationale above but this was the toughest decision on my ballot thanks to BJ Callaghan’s campaign. Ultimately, I think Damet’s job with a revolving door of contributors throughout the season tips it over the edge for me but it’s hard to argue against Nashville’s consistency especially through a tortuous end of the season when St. Louis’s level did drop. 

MVP: Lionel Messi

The gap between Lionel Messi’s 14.43 goals added number and Preston Judd’s 4.66 g+ would rank 5th all-time just behind Zlatan’s 2019 season. The season better than Messi’s 2026 was Messi’s 2025, which was statistically the best season in league history. 

39 goal contributions in 2026 was a step down compared to 2025 but it still ranks as the 3rd most prolific season in league history behind Carlos Vela’s 2019 season. 

It might look farcical that Messi arrived in MLS and dominated for 3.5 seasons but it’s often forgotten that the little magic man had 40 goal contributions in 39 Ligue 1 and Champions League matches for PSG in the 2022/23 season. 

A GOAT doing GOAT shit as the kids would say… I think.