St. Louis CITY SC produces marginal gains and massive mistakes.

It has been a season of close calls, maybes, and what-ifs for St. Louis CITY SC in 2025, and Saturday night’s 2-3 loss to Houston was no different.

On paper, a matchup with the Dynamo should have been one in which David Critchley’s squad finally put the whole picture together. Instead, the first match of the post-Lutz Pfannenstiel era was met with a stagnant start and self-inflicted wounds.

Despite having more possession, Houston dictated play. Ben Olsen’s squad capitalized on their one big opportunity of the first half as Ezequiel Ponce floated into the space between Henry Kessler and Timo Baumgartl during a dangerous set piece.

St. Louis’s only big chance of the first half sailed agonizingly wide.

CITY SC didn’t register a shot attempt until João Klauss’s effort in the 33rd minute, and while the match didn’t seem out of hand, St. Louis were lulled into a false sense of control.

The second half was better for St. Louis, but the fruits of their labors only came following two crucial individual errors.

Henry Kessler’s own goal was a product of Ponce’s crafty run into the box. Kessler chased, only to find himself tangled up with a cross that floated behind the charging Ponce. Then, down 0-2, Fallou Fall was the next CB to make a crucial mistake. Fall scuffed a routine pass back to Roman Bürki, setting up an easy finish for Duane Holmes with the backline out of position.

“I think the easy one to say from the eye of a fan and a supporter is fix the individual mistakes. Three poor individual errors today cost us three goals.” David Critchley said afterwards, “We have to be much quicker on the ball when we want to break a mid-block down. If you're coming up against a team that's going to sit in a little bit deeper on you, and you move the ball too slow, you'll never threaten a goal. It will look like you have a lot of moments, but you'll never truly threaten a goal.”

Critchley’s instant analysis is spot on.

St. Louis controlled 64% of possession through the first half and rarely found a dangerous path forward with the ball at their feet.

That being said, individual errors are still the biggest cause of the defeat.

Mistakes that loom additionally large after St. Louis showed fight over the final 15 minutes.

Houston took their foot off the gas up 3-0, and St. Louis started finding success immediately after Holmes’s goal.

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Edu Löwen struck first, throwing himself into a deflection, striking clean on the half volley.

“Houston wasn't really a team that should have scored three goals tonight, but we just gave it to them.” Löwen vented afterwards. “When it left my foot, I kind of knew that it's gonna be dangerous. I was definitely glad that it went in. It was an awesome reaction from us.”

Löwen’s goal led to one of the biggest moments of a tough season.

Mykhi Joyner, who had missed a similar opportunity moments earlier, rose to meet Chris Durkin’s cross towards the backpost. His header sailed past Jonathan Bond, opening his MLS account just one week following his controversial moment in Vancouver.

“I felt good. I wanted to come out with intensity.” Joyner reflected. “I wanted to show that this game is not over and that we can come back. And I just wanted to show fight and that we don't give up until that whistle is blown.”

Despite a poor showing early, that moment forced Energizer Park to their feet, finally giving supporters some belief in the squad’s ability to fight back from death. João Klauss’s headed effort in the 93rd minute clattered wide off the post, leaving St. Louis with a deeply unsatisfying outing and a third straight 2-3 loss.

“This weekend we beat ourselves.” Critchley said, “We had three mistakes against the ball that led to three goals. And as much as I do appreciate the response and the effort, it took 75 minutes of a football game to get to that point. So I wanted the response and the effort to be much cleaner and sharper from the players.”

Defensively, it’s been far from ideal but the squad has routinely showed that they have the ability to claw back into matches. It’s a skill they did not possess earlier in the season under Olof Mellberg, but under Critchley – while vastly improved – they’ve been unable to keep the ball out of their own net.

In the 13 matches under Crithcley, CITY SC have a goal differential of 22-30, compared to 11-20 in the 15 matches under Olof Mellberg. It’s a stark difference. In 2 less matches, Critchley’s CITY SC has allowed 10 more goals against while scoring twice as many goals.

Is the differential as extreme if Critchley doesn’t feel like he must go for broke every week? Maybe not, maybe the club is more disciplined if they have the luxury of playing for a draw… but for now, it’s a team that can not stop leaking opportunities.

They’ve still underscored their expected goals by six this season – only Colorado, Austin, and DC have worse finishing records – there is still time to even out that number.

Some uncertainty is swirling around the club’s future plans, tough decisions await, and important decision loom large… at least the soccer has been entertaining.

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Mykhi Joyner, CITY’s homegrown MLS Contributor.

Joyner’s goal was the culmination of an impressive shift on his 19th birthday. The goal has been coming, but Joyner entered the match with a sense of determination on both sides of the ball. Answering the question of “how will he respond to the botched VAR decision in Vancouver?” with authority.

Joyner made three defensive contributions, won five of seven duels, drew two fouls, and missed a big chance worth 0.40 xG moments before finally etching his name in the CITY SC history books as the second homegrown to score a MLS goal at Energizer Park.

The homegrowns, it turns out, will be ok.

The next step in the ladder for CITY SC’s player pathway will be in integrating Miggy Perez, Caden Glover, and Tyson Pearce into the regular rotation. The trio has had an exciting summer during CITY 2’s unbeaten run — with academy players Emiliano Chavez (16), Eddie Niles (14), and Trip Clancy (16) making regular appearances — and Caden Glover’s goal on Sunday is going to prove important with Joyner making the permanent jump to the first team.

Now, Joyner will join the U20 USMNT next week where they’ll face Portugal in a warm-up for next month’s U20 World Cup, Joyner replaced the injured Taha Habroune after originally being included in the talent ID camp.