St. Louis CITY SC dismantles LA Galaxy 6-2 ahead of Vancouver clash.

In preparation for Sunday Night Soccer against LA Galaxy, an intrepid reporter asked CITY SC manager Yoann Damet how he was keeping his team on task, knowing a top-of-the-table clash with Vancouver was waiting on the other side.

“If we want to make the game exciting on Wednesday, we have to take care of Sunday,” he said. “Right now, there is no conversation about Vancouver, Minnesota, or the final. Right now, it's all eyes on Galaxy.”

And take care of business they did.

CITY SC thrashed the Galaxy 6-2, but even that betrays a scoreline that was 5-1 at halftime. Carlo Holse recorded the 2nd fastest hat trick in MLS history in the 21st minute, only bested by Hany Mukhtar’s 16 minute hat trick vs Chicago in 2021.

Rafael Navarro recorded a 2 goal, 2 assist night, bringing his tally to 9 goal contributions in 5 starts since arriving in St. Louis. Navarro is now 5th in the league in both goals (17) and goal contributions (22).

Navarro admitted post-match that he’s never played in a system that creates for him centrally; his uptick in form is paying off Corey Wray’s bet. Navarro’s talent on both sides of the ball is easy to see, but he’s never been a clinical goal scorer; that appears to be more about fit vs finishing, as he has smashed past his career high scoring numbers. 

Holse is enjoying a similar trajectory after 10 matches under Yoann Damet. The Dane notched a career high in goals and assists during his last season at Trabzonspor with 10 goals and 8 assists. He’s now on pace to blow past that scoring record. 

It’s taken a few matches for the attacker to feel comfortable — increasing his fitness out of preseason while learning a brand new tactical system — but he’s arrived. Holse’s hat trick was the cherry on top of a 1.01 g+ performance, second only to Marcel Hartel’s 1.08 g+ performance vs RSL in his final match.

"He knows that he had a lot to understand and to get up to speed with to be able to express himself in the team, and he's put in the work," Damet said. "He's put in the work, he's had tons of meetings, discussions, on field as well, questions, and once he starts understanding like where we want him to be and how we want him to connect with his teammates, I think he can express all his abilities. And tonight, you can see what he can do defensively, but also on the ball, the way he can set his team up, his teammates up, but also the way he can get in front of the goal and finish."

Holse now leads CITY SC in goals added, followed by Alex Mățan and Navarro who both added to that tally against the Galaxy. 

It was a great team performance even if the final 30 minutes left Yoann Damet frustrated at the drop in energy level. That’s to be expected when his side led 5-1 at the half… but it does speak to the standards both the coaching staff and the players have been determined to live up to over this run.

“That's the problem in those games.” Damet said, “They rotated a couple of players tonight. They've got some important games coming. The score line got big early in the game, so it becomes a game that is a bit more open. We think we can attack too quickly sometimes, and that we can be a little bit more vertical than we've been in the past. There is a bit of context there that we need to take into consideration. But I still hope we can learn from those moments and show a little bit more consistency, especially on the defensive side, to not concede.”

How it happened.

CITY SC jumped out of the gate, running downhill and in behind the Galaxy back line. 

Yoann Damet saw an opportunity to run down the throats of Jakob Glesnes and Justin Haak, and boy, did CITY SC run with that opportunity. 

Carlo Holse scored in the 2nd minute on CITY SC’s 2nd shot of the match, only to follow that up in the 7th minute on back to back assists from Navarro. He completed the hat trick in the 21st minute when Chris Durkin clipped a ball out of the midfield with virtually no pressure around him. 

“It's amazing to give that kind of relief to the team,” Holse said, remarking on how quickly the goals have flowed for CITY SC lately. “I feel like we've been doing that really well.”

All 3 goals highlighted how poor the Galaxy were in pressuring the ball both in CITY SC’s build up and when St. Louis attacked directly… which was often.

Damet and Holse admitted afterwards that this was a repeatable pattern of play. Durkin’s assist on Holse’s 3rd goal was similar to a movement they had discovered earlier in the week. 

“Chris had found some very interesting passes in training,” Damet said, “we’ve been trying to build to these moments that everyone can feel pride in, and you saw from that celebration, everyone coming together to take pride in finding a key pass like that.”

Durkin’s pair of assists on Sunday night was a continuation of a stellar run of form over the past few matches. Ahead of the match, he said that his confidence in his role has been growing with the freedom he has been awarded in possession. 

He followed those comments with a career best performance.

The Galaxy did find some pockets of momentum, their first period of positive play ended when Robert Taylor a 0.08 xG chance into the top corner. Lukas MacNaughton could have hugged Taylor tighter but the goal is more the responsibility of the recovering midfielders who were caught pressed to high into the attack. 

Alex Mǎțan drew a penalty to bring the game back under their foot, and Navarro lined the penalty into the far corner. 

MacNaughton made it 5-1 ahead of halftime with diving to meet Mǎțan’s line drive into the box off a dangerous Free Kick.

And that was the story. 

Navarro made it 6-1 on the other side of halftime through creative effort that used Glesnes’s positioning to screen Galaxy keeper James Marcinkowski. The goal showcased why Navarro is more than a hardworking #9, he’s pulled out his whole bag of tricks over the past 5 matches, and Sunday’s was no exception.

“It's a Brazilian thing,” Navarro recalled through the help of a translator. “It's just instinct, a Spidey sense. I just saw that it was possible with that space and pulled it off."

Then, João Klauss marked his return, cutting the deficit to 6-2 with an in close headed effort to the delight of the Energizer Park crowd. It was a banner night for the lumbering striking in his return to St. Louis. Klauss was announced with an in-stadium graphic when the Galaxy made their way onto the pitch for warm ups.

“I really appreciate the love they gave me today,” Klauss said afterwards. “Even when I came onto the field after 5 minutes they were cheering for me, after the goal as well, they were celebrating the goal. So I really appreciated them, a lot of love for them.”

The cheers wouldn’t be as voluminous if Klauss’s goal isn’t the last in a 6-2 match, but I’ve never experienced a moment like that live. It should help contextualize why the fanbase’s ire after selling Klauss and then trading Löwen never really dissipated even as CITY SC passed the 10 straight unbeaten mark until the club finalized the $12+ million transfer of Rafael Navarro.

Those feelings have healed recently, and Sunday’s win was another step towards marking their intensions as a serious Cup contender. Those supporters will come around, especially if they’re top of the West after Wednesday.

Previewing Vancouver.

Vancouver visits St. Louis Wednesday night after a 1-1 draw vs LAFC where they were hindered by Triston Blackmon’s 7th minute Red Card. Vancouver have struggled to get results over the past few months but the process, the expected numbers have still been among the best in the league.

The results haven’t followed and they have been missing Sebastian Berhalter’s presence but Saturday’s draw felt close to the Vancouver side from the past few seasons.

Now, they’ll visit St. Louis – currently the best home team in the Western Conference – at a pivotal moment. A loss would hand CITY SC the top seed in the conference with 5 matches to go, while a win would end CITY SC’s unbeaten streak and effectively end any chase of the top seed over the final month of the season.

Vancouver will be motivated by the 1-3 loss to CITY SC last month, but so will the home side, a culmination of their long march up the table. 

If Sunday’s win was direct down the middle, Wednesday will have to be a continuation of the success they’ve had in the wide spaces through Totland and Wallem. There might be some rotation with Becher and Sangbin as options in the attack and Fallou Fall as a more athletic option defensively but Yoann Damet turned down the idea of a rotated squad despite Sunday’s big effort from the starting XI. 

At the very least, he won’t be able to pry Rafael Navarro out of the lineup with his current form.

“Our mentality has just been to get better every game,” Navarro said. “I think it shows on the field. So, you know all the hard work that we put in on the training pitch shows on the field. So yeah, that's the mentality. Just keep getting better every day.”