St. Louis CITY SC's bizarre night vs FC Dallas

St. Louis CITY SC seemed to be squarely in the driver’s seat when FC Dallas goalkeeper Michael Collodi was sent off in the 16th minute of Saturday’s 1-1 draw. Collardi clattered through João Klauss as he made a move isolated against the keeper. CITY SC seemed to be on their way to a simple win – something that has evaded them most of the season.

Well, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and St. Louis generated just three big opportunities from an MLS joint-record 43(!) shot attempts. It’s tough to find meaningful analysis in a match where CITY SC generated 4.03 xG on target, 35 shot attempts inside the box, and 3.45 xG compared to just 0.36 against.

The stats say this should have been a rout… so what happened?

Célio Pompeu kicked off the festivities with his second goal of the season, curling a recycled corner kick at the top of the box and curling it past backup keeper Jacob Jackson. At that point, it should have been curtains. Then, a collective mistake in attempting to play through Dallas’s counterpress led to Petar Musa collecting a simple pass from Christian Cappis and easily leveling the match.

The 2025 season will be a frustrating legacy. There have been moments where the talent on the roster comes through, but those bright spots have been followed by moments of complete catastrophe. Self-inflicted and otherwise.

Petar Musa’s equalizer is a key example.

CITY SC should have never attempted to play through Dallas’s counterpress, but even as they won the ball, Chris Durkin takes a slightly heavy touch, and Dallas capitalizes within seconds.

“The execution wasn't there.” David Critchley said, “We get the goal. [...] We have so much momentum on our side. The crowd has done a great job. We have them pinned all the way back in their own box and then we make a very big mistake on a throw-in on our own corner flag and it was stuff that we had addressed all week. [...] We didn't do that today on the field in that one moment.”

Now, Level 1-1 St. Louis still had plenty of time to find a go-ahead goal, and plenty of field tilt, but chance after chance lacked finish.

Three CITY SC players generated over 1.0 xG + xA, Chris Durkin, João Klauss, and Marcel Hartel – Conrad Wallem was close with 0.94 xA – while both Simon Becher and Durkin generated over an expected goal on target.

Credit to Jacob Jackson’s shot-stopping ability, but St. Louis did not make his life as hard as they should have. Shots went wide, shots went high, and shots were lifted instead of driven.

“We need to speed up and try to get more service in the box before it gets really crowded.” Critchley continued, “That was one that we also needed to probably improve on. Overall, I'll give the guys credit because we created and generated so much high data, which is good, but we talk about it right now. The only data, really, we should be focusing on is three points.”

The pace had to be quicker, attackers had to be more decisive, and they had to more to take advantage of their man advantage as Dallas made no effort to push up the pitch.

If CITY SC had more of a killer instinct, this would have been a routine night. In reality, the draw is a microcosm of the season itself, a team that can not move out of its own way.

“It's a game that we should win 5-0, all due respect to Dallas.” Célio ranted. “It's a game where we have to kill them, and especially at home, in the place we’re most comfortable. We have our fans screaming the whole game supporting us. So it's a game where we have to kill them and kill them early, in the first half, but no. In this game, they put pressure on us. We have to score, we have to score, and then we don't score.”

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Brendan McSorely is here to stay.

Friday, CITY2 star Brendan McSorely signed a first-team contract through the end of the season with a team option for 2026 and 2027. McSorely has 16 goal contributions in just under 2000 minutes in MLS NEXT Pro, and injected the energy needed for CITY SC’s late push. McSorely came on, took on defenders, was decisive in his movements, and threw himself at the ball, coming inches away from a go-ahead bicycle kick.

In 21 minutes, McSorely created a chance and took two shots on target, brave minutes for a player who had played 40 minutes in Major League Soccer since being selected in the third round of the 2024 SuperDraft.

Next week, St. Louis heads to Montréal with another opportunity to grab points off of a fellow non-playoff club. Sangbin Jeong and Mykhi Joyner will be back from international duty, and St. Louis will explore what rituals may help exorcise the vibes of the 2025 season.

It’s been that kind of season.

Talkin Soccer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.