St. Louis CITY SC yearns for decisive play following loss to Seattle.

St. Louis couldn’t take advantage of a vulnerable Seattle Sounders Football Club on Saturday night. 

There were opportunities. 

Yoann Damet’s squad looked confident in possession and heaped pressure on the Sounders throughout the first half in transition, but far too often, the final pass lacked decisiveness. The inclusion of Cedric Teuchert was an upgrade in his first start of the season, but the attacking trio of Teuchert, Becher, and Hartel lacked chemistry and cohesiveness on the final pass. All of the momentum and positive play in transition resulted in just 0.66 expected goals.

“I'm really pleased with Cedi tonight.” Yoann Damet said, “That was the idea in bringing him in to start the game. Give us some quality on the ball. Give us a different profile between the lines. So, I felt like he had a great performance. Felt he gave us a different look, as well, in terms of how we wanted to build up.”

Strong defensive play gave St. Louis a platform. Sounders weren’t goal dangerous for most of the match, and, especially in the first half, were outplayed by a CITY SC that is still searching for its signature moment. 

Unfortunately, the signature moment in this match went the other way. 

A sequence of play that should have resulted in Conrad Wallam laying the ball off to Jaziel Orozco as CITY SC calmly built from a Seattle turnover, instead, resulted in a turnover right into the path of Jesús Ferreira and led to the deciding goal. Wallem hustled to beat Ferreira to an errant pass, and while Wallem was under pressure, CITY SC had the space to jump forward. Unfortunately, Wallem scuffed the pass as Ferreira recovered and passed into Kalani Kossa-Rienzi at the top of the box.

That was the defining moment.

“It's a game of mistakes.” Damet continued, “The blame is not on Conrad. I look more at moments. From that moment, we get punished; there are probably some other moments in the game where we don't get punished. So right now, we need to turn those things into like positive for us; so can we learn from those mistakes and make maybe a different decision in the future."

With a one-goal lead, Seattle was able to sit back and invite St. Louis to break them down. Sounders dropped their initial pressure on the ball and weren’t baited into chasing CITY SC into their defensive half to open up spaces through the middle. Conversely, St. Louis weren’t creative enough to come away with balls into the tight spaces, and the wingbacks didn’t deliver enough fruitful service to make a difference.

Poor Wingback play was the impetus.

Even outside of Wallem’s error, the wingbacks didn't create enough danger to force Seattle out of their shell. Neither wide player found a way to beat a defender off the dribble from four attempts, and Rafael Santos was especially wasteful – completing just one of ten attempted crosses.

To that point; Wallem and Santos created five chances, but only generated 0.26 expected assists from those chances, and neither drove towards goal on their own to make up for the lack of service. 

The lack of high danger chances has been a constant through three matches as only Miggy Perez and Simon Becher have created a big scoring chance... there’s a distinct lack of creativity. 

Some of that could change if Célio Pompeu is given more of a runout, or if there’s more patience for Mykhi Joyner to learn his new dual ten role on the pitch, but – at least through this early slate – Damet is valuing structure over creativity if that means losing positioning. 

St. Louis only created 0.66 expected goals from twelve shot attempts, mostly created by Teuchert and Hartel.

Positive takeaways.

The additions of Mamadou Mbacke and Fallou Fall to the backline will still be important to a group that needs some of those linebreaking and gamebreaking moments, but Jaziel Orozco and Dante Polvara have been good in their stay. Following Saturday night, both are averaging over 3.0 interceptions per match – Polvara averaging 3.8 – and Polvara has shown some bravery in stepping into the attack at times. 

Timo Baumgartl has also been good in his role in holding down the center of the backline, and his leadership seems to be a good counterbalance in the room.

Speaking on the result:

“We get three games into the season, if we now throw our head down and say everything is lost, I think that's not the right mentality. I'm a generally positive human being. That's why I'm looking forward now. We make video analysis on Monday, and then we're looking forward to a big challenge [against LAFC]. But, I don't like the negativity. It’s about how we build, how we are getting a process. I mean, if we're chanceless, if we don't have anything, and we're not capable of competing against the team like Seattle, I would be worried.”

Chris Durkin and Daniel Edelman were also positive against Seattle’s midfield, keeping Cristian Roldan to just one shot attempt and zero chances created. Edelman also created a chance for Brendan McSorely to tie the match in the 80th minute, but it wasn’t enough to beat Andrew Thomas. 

“I think Cristian [Roldan] is one of the best American midfielders in the league. I look forward to challenges like that, I know me and Danny [Edelman] are really up for it. And yeah, we kept them at bay for large points, but it’s still zero points for us at the end of the day, and that’s frustrating. We have to take this one on the chin, and I’m happy with the level of urgency.”

Two things can be true.

This can be a frustrating result, and the lack of quality chance creation continues to stick out like a sore thumb, but the structure and ability to control the match were positives for a group that is attempting to rebuild the plane after takeoff.

Even though the early slate of matches went their way last season, the underlying performances weren’t positive, and the squad was holding on to results vs dictating play. The floor is higher than it was at this time last season, but – until the summer transfer window – the top-end talent has to be developed in house.

Yoann Damet grappled with that duality in the aftermath:

“We controlled the performance, which I'm proud of, again, the guys worked truly hard. They pushed. I think there are moments when we need to be more decisive. That's the goal. That's also potentially the danger we created and the opportunities we didn't create from that danger. But there is, again, a lot of positive, which is difficult to say when you don't see the result.”

Another positive, Sergio Córdova debuted in the 58th minute for Teuchert, who has yet to reach full fitness. Córdova was largely fine, but arriving during a match state when Seattle were compact and not ceding space in the middle of the attack meant that Córdova wouldn’t make an immediate impact. In light of Becher’s play vs Seattle, Córdova may have a larger role next weekend, especially as he offers something different at the top of the line. 

Next up, St. Louis travels to LAFC in another tough matchup before returning home to play New England. It’s a long season, and St. Louis was always in for a slog over these 13 matches before the World Cup break, but the New England match does seem to be the first, on paper, winnable match where CITY SC has to show that they can execute on their new principles of play. The process has been better, the level of control has been better, but at some point, that has to equal results. 

More to come this week ahead of next weekend's NWSL kickoff, subscribe for more recaps and previews and consider donating if you appreciate my work.