Questions & Answers From Yoann Damet's First Outing In St. Louis

The Yoann Damet era kicked off with what is quickly becoming a nice February tradition in St. Louis: Clydesdales, Jackie Joyner-Kersee delivering the matchball, and the opposing Goalkeeper standing on his head to keep things level at full time. 

After the 1-1 draw to kick things off against RSL in 2024 and the scoreless draw with Colorado last season, history may feel like it's repeating itself, but as Mark Twain once said, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”  

Anyways, if year two under Bradley Carnell started with a desperate Sam Adeniran drive down the right, and the short tenure of Olof Mellberg began with a scoreless draw after an endless barrage of attempts resulted in just five shots on target vs Zack Steffen, fans would be forgiven for not knowing what to make of this result.

History may be like poetry (it rhymes), but Saturday’s result against a perennial Eastern Conference favorite – CLTFC went 7-2 after the Leagues Cup break last season – should feel cautiously optimistic. 

For starters, the expectations around this version of St. Louis CITY SC were low ahead of first kick.

Key players were unavailable due to injury and family leave, and the roster is clearly not a finished product after the first window of Corey Wray’s tenure. 

Edu Löwen explained some of that when he spoke to the media on Monday after he flew home to St. Louis following the first closed-door preseason match during the Coachella leg of the club's preparations.

Löwen’s wife, Ilona, was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2024, and he has missed time over the past two seasons to be by her side. Löwen wanted to get out ahead of it last week, saying:

 “Sometimes there are just moments and things that only I can take care of and I want to take care of, because I'm the husband, and there are just certain responsibilities that sometimes force me, or also a way I want to step away and take care of her. Sometimes there are just unexpected things that happen. For clarity sake, for you guys, but also for the fans and everyone else that if something in the future happens like that, and the club doesn't communicate an injury or something like that, then you guys know what's going on.”

On Saturday, Chris Durkin stepped into Löwen’s spot next to St. Louis debutant Daniel Edelman and performed admirably given the circumstances. He was one of the top performers of the match, coming 1 clutch Kristijan Kahlina save away from breaking the deadlock in the first half.

Fallou Fall’s injury and Mbacke Fall’s visa delay – both seem ready to train this week – lead to the preseason CB trio of Jaziel Orozco, Timo Baumgartl, and Dante Polvara starting on opening day. For the most part, the trio did fine.

Defensively, Polvara and Orozco stepped in front of danger, intercepting Charlotte’s attempts to split the lines, completing 9 interceptions between them and, for Orozco, getting the better of Wilfried Zaha on multiple occasions. 

Alright, let’s get into the questions.

What will Yoann Damet’s CITY SC look like? 

There was a pretty good idea of what this would look like in action after a few glimpses of preseason action, and Saturday’s Starting XI only clarified the early ideas. 

In possession, the CBs looked to create space to send balls into the wingbacks and progress into the attack, but they also used balls centrally through the lines into Becher or Hartel to then turn and find combinations. In the passing network, the triangles have started to take shape with Damet looking for those opportunities to help players play out of trouble.

Out of possession, CITY SC attacked the ball in Charlotte’s attacking third and following changes in possession in the middle third. They attempted to create opportunities to break forward at pace by disrupting Charlotte’s build-up, and take advantage of the numbers advantage turning at goal. You can see that at play in Marcel Hartel’s opening goal after Orozco dispossessed Zaha, finds Edelman as he squares, and sends the ball forward to Simon Becher, who already knows he’s going to chop the ball over to Hartel to hit first time. 

The sequence was clearly a key idea in Damet’s early system. Pounce on the opportunity to win possession, then quickly eye a ball upfield into Becher, or one of the dual 10s – Hartel, Sangbin, or McSorely. 

Simon Becher’s opportunity in the 80th minute reads similarly (sorry, Tim Ream). 

Speaking of Becher, there was concern that he wouldn’t have the juice to step into the starting striker role following the cashfer of João Klauss – who scored 2 minutes into his debut – to the LA Galaxy. However, Becher rewarded the faith with a few key moves over the course of the match.

Yes, strikers are judged by their goals, but Becher’s assist on the opener was a high IQ play, and his drive around USMNT starting CB (hmmmm) Tim Ream should have resulted in the go-ahead goal. 

“I know I had a little space between me and him,” Becher said of the opportunity. “I saw him come to check, so I just kind of used his momentum against him and flicked it around him to make it a foot race.”

Who will score the goals?

As Saturday demonstrated, the front three will have their chances, whether that remains Hartel-Becher-Sangbin or if one of Brendan McSorely, Cedric Teuchert, or Mykhi Joyner pushes Sangbin out of the starting role. St. Louis poured on the pressure over the final 10 minutes plus stoppage time, generating 1.1 expected goals on target through clear chances for Becher, McSorely, and Teuchert. 

Now, longtime readers may feel a sense of dread and despair itching over them, reading those stats, but against a goalkeeper like Kahlina, sometimes those chances are just going to be saved. 

You can question the decision-making on a few of the attempts, you can question what happened on Conrad Wallem’s skied effort in the 30th minute, but the team that generates more opportunities in the attack, has the more dangerous shots on target, and controlled the field should walk away with three points. 

“We are going to go again,” Damet said post-match. “We believe in who we are, who we want to be. It's not going to be perfect. Like I said many times, we're building. It's a work in progress, but we're going to keep pushing. What I loved about the end of the game is like we were still on the front foot, still trying to create opportunities. We didn't think twice about whether we should close the game, should we sit, should we wait, or should we go.”

St. Louis will bring in some scoring help over the next week when the club adds Venezuelan International Sergio Córdova from BSC Young Boys on loan with an option to buy. 

Córdova is a fine addition as a stopgap while the club explores its options heading into the summer. He’s been hot and cold in his career, but has MLS experience, is good defensively and in 1v1 duels, and scored 11 goals in 2022 with Real Salt Lake. He looked lost in Vancouver the next season, only to rebound with 10 goals at Alanyaspor on 7.34 xG in 24/25. There’s potential to get that out of him, but it does add more questions to what exactly this rotation will look like as the season marches on.

Still, this team scored 3 times from open play (all vs the Galaxy) in its first 7 matches of the season in 2025, a better start.

Defensively, what went wrong?

Damet’s squad looked well structured through the first half and succeeded in frustrating Charlotte to the tune of one shot on target in the 40th minute. They regrouped effectively when Charlotte attempted to counter quickly, and stuffed out many of Charlotte’s attempts to split the CBs.

St. Louis broke the deadlock and looked to be holding on, but a miscommunication in the 73rd minute when Wallem pinched to pressure Zaha created a gap in the coverage. Wallem stayed high to pressure Zaha, while Orozco initially stayed wide to mark David Schnegg before floating to Pep Biel’s outside shoulder. The gap between Orozco and Edelman was exploited by Zaha’s ball to send Biel through, and it’s a tidy finish over Bürki’s shoulder and squeezing inside the post. 

Ultimately, it was a moment of uncertainty between a group of players that might not play together often once Mbacke and Fallou Fall are up to speed, exploited by two of the best in Major League Soccer. 

Damet had his first time squad ready to play, compact, and with clear knowledge of their roles, but the talent gap between the two sides left St. Louis feeling like they should have left Saturday with more to show for it. When the match stretched out, when both teams were attacking at pace, that’s when Damet felt the opening was exploited, a problem he feels will fix itself over the course of the season. 

“We scored in the second half. At the same time, I thought the second half, the game got to be a bit more stretched and a bit more open, so you could see we started to rush the attacks a little bit, and then the game became a little bit more transitional. That's also the start of the season. Guys are getting tired, so decision-making gets affected. So I would say, like today, is a good lesson from that standpoint. I think we did some good things in the second half, but as well at times we made it a little bit more difficult when it came to managing the game and maybe keeping the ball, finding those moments.”

Despite the clear reasons why it happened, St. Louis CITY SC was the only team in MLS to drop points on opening day despite a clear expected win advantage; a fact that CITY SC will hope only rhymes with last season’s trend of dropping points from winning positions. 

It’s an entirely different test next Sunday in San Diego.

The North End’s Demonstration:

Last week in Talkin’ Soccer, we discussed St. Louis CITY SC’s recently updated Fan Code of Conduct and why it resulted in two banners typically displayed by the St. Louis City Punks being denied ahead of the 2026 season. 

While the club did allow the group’s Black Lives Matter flag for the match with Charlotte, the entire North End came together to demonstrate against the decision to enforce matchday relevance to signage in the section.

The demonstration took place from the 7th to the 9th minutes of the match, as the usually bouncy drum line slowed down to emphasize the chant. The lull coincided with the CITY SC attack slowing down the tempo to prod Charlotte’s defensive structure, highlighting the role that the Supporters’ Section generally plays in conducting the stadium’s energy. The lull in the attack also prompted commentary to compliment the environment at Energizer Park, just as the “People united will never be divided” chant could be picked up on the broadcast. 

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