Some CITY SC hopium and a St. Louis Soccer notebook.

The winless St. Louis CITY SC host the New England Revolution this evening in what has quickly become a must-win for Yoann Damet’s men. Obviously, a loss or draw doesn’t end the season after five matches, but it would signal that the signs of hope that the squad has exhibited through four matches were fool’s gold.

There will be the usual difficulties. Cedric Teuchert is unavailable, aggravating his ankle during a tackle last weekend.

*Edu Löwen is away from the club, but there will be a moment to honor Ilona Löwen during today’s match. There will also be Brain Cancer Awareness pins available for pickup at the Louligans tailgate.*

However, the absence of Teuchert allows for an opportunity next to Marcel Hartel underneath the striker. Yoann Damet is holding his cards close to his chest, noticing the impact of Mykhi Joyner and Brendan McSorely off the bench in recent weeks, but maybe more up for the return of Sangbin to a role in the starting XI. If Sergio Córdova is ready to play more than 45 minutes, that could also move Simon Becher underneath Córdova from the jump, a look that could favor Becher as the secondary option in a partnership – although the same could be said for how McSorely played off of João Klauss last season. 

Against New England, CITY SC has the first look at an opponent who isn’t expected to win on paper. The Revs struggled through the first two matches of the season before slicing through a rotated FC Cincinnati side at home last weekend. Maybe that match was a sign of Marko Mitrović’s vision, but more likely, it was an outlier that took advantage of Cincinnati in between CCC brawls with Tigres to the tune of 4 headed goals, generating 4.53 xGOT from 1.88 expected goals. 

The 4-2-3-1 pivoted around RW Luca Langoni with a trio of assists from 3 completed crosses and 2 big chances.

It was a warning shot; St. Louis have to be prepared, but it’s a vulnerability that hasn’t been apparent through St. Louis’s first four matches, with New England capitalizing on their aerial strength vs a less engaged FC Cincy. Still, Carles Gil is capable of magic, and Griffin Yow has been dangerous off the bench; every team is capable on any given day in this league.

Some Hope.

Despite 1 point through 4 matches, CITY SC’s underlying numbers have been generally good. 

8th in MLS in expected goals differential, 6th in expected goals against, and 13th in expected goals for against Charlotte FC, and 3 Western Conference favorites. 

Obviously, those are unactualized to this point, but expected stats are usually a prediction of future success, and Yoann Damet has found something in his early tenure. CITY SC is further along than expected, and while talent and finishing are issues, they’re issues that were expected without someone taking a massive step forward. 

Is now a good time to bring up – recently called up to the U20s – Mykhi Joyner’s lack of minutes?

ASA’s predictive metrics are still high on CITY SC.

Damet pondered on it after Tuesday’s training.

“We're further down the line than I thought we were gonna be after four games.” He said, “I didn't think, in week four, we would be focusing on the final third that much, and be, like, ‘Okay, we're lacking that last piece of scoring goals.’ [...] I thought it would be most spending time on the build up, or the middle third, or about creating those opportunities. [...] Right now, we do create those opportunities, and it's a matter of finishing them off, being more efficient, being more clinical.”

Looking ahead to game time.

Fallou Fall and Mamadou Mbacke spent time training next to Timo Baumgartl this week. Does that mean one of them starts over Dante Polvara or Jaziel Orozco? Damet seems to want to see more from their current fitness levels, but either would add a dynamic that – while the backline has been fine – can create opportunities as CITY SC prods for an attacking opportunity out of the backline. Even then, they just need to score goals from the chances they have created.

CITY 2 news:

The MLS NEXT Pro team has started the season 3-0-0 after an offseason revamp, with Palmer Ault tied for 2nd in MLSNP with 6 goals + assists. Unfortunately, Owen Jorgenson’s wrist injury 8 minutes into the opening match vs Sporting Kansas City 2 has thrown some of the youth movement into flux, but 16 year old Alex Jundt has made two starts to great success in the double pivot, 18 year old keeper Lucas McPartlin has been incredibly fun on the ball, and Edi Niles, Evan Carlock, Chidube Nwankwo, Stone Marion, Lorenzo Cornelius and Yuichiro Ota have all played important minutes as Academy call-ups. 

Overall, it’s been a successful start for David Critchley’s squad, while Corey Wray continues to sign college free agents to stash in MLSNP. 

In the past two weeks, CITY2 have signed midfielder and DMV native Adeteye Gbadehan following a stint at Cardiff City, along with Oregon State defender Andrew De Gannes to one-year CITY2 deals with club options. 

This follows the Wray playbook of attempting to find diamonds in the rough, while bringing in young, hungry, athletic competition for a highly touted group of Academy players looking to make the jump. 

Look across this squad, you'll also see players like Ault, Riley Lynch, Jerome Barclay, Jack Wagoner, and Sydney Paris. All players between 21 and 23 who either looked competent in college or weren't given proper run outs at their past clubs.

That might not be the impact the first team needs at the moment, but two years down the line, these moves may look foundational. 

BOHFS USOC journey. 

Speaking of Stone Marion, one of his former clubs, BOHFS St. Louis, hosted Union Omaha in the first round of the US Open Cup. This was a St. Louis amateur club's first appearance in the tournament proper in its modern era, and the first amateur/semi-professional side since the St. Louis Lions qualified for the first round in the 2009 and 2010 seasons. 

*Profiled in St. Louis Magazine this week.*

It was a long day at the park when Alen Bradaric’s side took the field at Lindenwood University. 2,100 fans made the trek to St. Charles on a Wednesday night to watch the USL League One Heavyweights take on the upstart BOHFS. Unfortunately, the national audience watched on as the fully professional side drubbed the St. Louisans 0-8 over the course of 90 minutes. 

It was an ugly scoreline, but still a big moment for BOHFS. 

The attendance was great, the environment painted the picture of what amateur soccer can still be for the city, and offered a good litmus test for future MWPL sides if they want to seriously mount a Cupset campaign in the future. It also wasn’t the ugliest scoreline of the week as Lexington beat Flower City Union 9-0 on Thursday night. 

For Bradaric’s BOHFS, the opportunity to host and honor some St. Louis soccer legends on the night was more important than the scoreline, and while they would have liked to dream big, it was still a cool moment for a group of players that never had a traditional send-off to their pro careers. BOHFS is still a young club, and has made some cool moves, sending young players to play in Spain, earning players tryouts with clubs like Celta Vigo. It just speaks to the still untapped potential of soccer at every level in St. Louis.

If anything, it has me dreaming about what a future USOC on the women’s side could do for local players, but that is a lofty dream at this point. 

Union Omaha could return to St. Louis if they win their 2nd round match vs Indy 11 at the end of the month, but CITY SC fans should also keep an eye of Bluegrassico – Lexington vs Louisville City – as a potential 3rd round matchup. With both SKC and Chicago Fire in the tournament this year, it's tough to see where the geographical lines will be drawn.