'The pressure is all on us.' St. Louis hosts Kansas City in MLS restart.

The last time St. Louis CITY SC took the pitch, they finished a tough 14-match stretch with a 3-0 win over a rudderless Austin FC to finish 3-1-1 over the five-match stretch in MLS play. Now, nearly two months later, CITY SC is back at Energizer Park for a crucially important night out with cross-state rivals Sporting Kansas City. 

The World Cup came and went, and CITY SC supporters spent the break growing impatient with the sheer amount of work left in reshaping a roster that struggled to score goals over the first half of the season.

However, zooming out, there’s a clear plan coming into focus as transactions across the sport start to pick up following the business end of soccer's most important competition. 

First, Wray needed to clear out roster spots. 

A Josh Yaro loan to AC Boise opened a supplemental roster spot, soon followed by the decisions to decline the option on Cedric Teuchert’s contract as well as the option to buy Sergio Córdova. The final piece of that puzzle came as Jake Girdwood-Reich was officially dealt to Motherwell following an A-League championship-winning loan stint at Auckland. 

The departures signal a big step in reshaping a roster that was originally cobbled together to support a different system with a different signing philosophy. JGR is going to be a very capable CB, but in a system that prioritizes moving the ball, he was surplus to requirements while occupying a premium roster spot. Similarly, Cedric Teuchert’s cap hit and international roster spot could be repurposed for an attacking midfielder who better suits what Yoann Damet values in the dual ten roles – hard-nosed play against the ball and more flexibility on the ball. 

Three days into the transfer window, the easier moves have been taken care of; flipping roster spots and signing MLS NEXT Pro talents like Palmer Ault and Zach Zengue. 

Zengue comes from Columbus on loan for $50,000 GAM with the option to buy at the end of the season. Wray originally scouted Zengue when he was in Columbus, and pulled the trigger on a player who couldn't find his way into the first team this season despite ranking top 3 in MLSNP goals added and leading the way in xG among non-strikers. Zengue will bounce between the CITY2 and first team setups for now. 

Next up, the club pulled the trigger on signing Palmer Ault to a first-team contract through next spring’s sprint season, with options for ‘27-28 and ‘28-29. Ault arrived in St. Louis after a prolific college career at Butler and Indiana before hitting the ground running in MLSNP with 13 goal contributions (8 goals, 5 assists) in 14 starts. Since joining the first team squad as a trialist this spring, this signing always seemed imminent, especially once he proved he fit the system. Ault isn’t the 9 signing everyone has been waiting for, but he does add a dynamic that Damet has been looking for in a second striker: the ability to play a dual-striker setup, especially until the #9 signing arrives. Ault has a nice understanding of timing his runs against the grain and possesses the ability to finish in tight spaces, all things CITY SC has needed off the bench. 

Wray now has 2 premium roster spots to use as the project marches on, but none of that matters when the rubber hits the road this evening. 

As CITY SC kicks off against their eternal rivals, Yoann Damet must make good on the promise of the intensive training over the last five weeks. Damet hasn’t been shy about how well he feels his group has acclimated to another intensive training camp.

Saying Tuesday:

“I'm taking that game as I took the [season opener]. We have to see where we're at. We have to see where we perform. The only difference is we've got five months under our belt of working together, understanding what we want to do, having clarity in terms of the way we want to play. That's why those five weeks were very important for us, where we could actually push the guys a little bit more now that they have a clear understanding of what's expected from them.”

It’s a chance to show that the wrinkles beginning to form before fixture congestion took over can continue carrying the group higher than the sum of their parts, and a chance to see which players earned a spot based on that play. What will the CB rotation look like? Will Dante Polvara still be the preferred CDM fill-in with Chris Durkin serving his yellow card suspension? And will Damet’s praise of Mykhi Joyner’s progression result in a bigger role?

Joyner has played less than 30 minutes across 3 regular season appearances through the first 14 matches. It was a rough look for a player who should be taking a big step forward this season, but Damet often reiterated that Joyner was missing the consistency in his game that he wanted to see out of the young attacker/wingback. 

"He came back really well,” Damet said, “That's why I love working with young players. We all know he has so much potential, but it took him 5 months to really understand the expectations that we have set for him. When we left in May, there was the expectation that how he came back would be very important for him. I’m very happy with how he’s progressed.”

There’s an encouraging sign here: if CITY SC can win while embracing a younger lineup, then some of the angst around the lack of progress in addressing their starting striker situation could dissipate, but they’ll have to pass the test against a Sporting Kansas City side also looking to rewrite their narrative. 

SKC were off to one of the worst starts in MLS history before grabbing points before the break and genuinely showing improvement before the summer break. Since then, they’ve started to rebuild their backline while pursuing some ambitious targets in the attack, such as the rumored – maybe a complete long shot – pursuit of Mo Salah. Those rumored targets have yet to cross the finish line, but there’s still danger lurking in a match that can often defy logic. Dejan Jovelić has killed St. Louis in the past, while Lasse Berg Johnsen, Capita, and Calvin Harris started to find form after arriving at the end of the winter window. Plus, there’s no telling how Or Blorian, Emir Karić, and Moisés Mosquera will mesh along the backline. 

There’s danger in unknowns. 

It’s likely CITY SC kick off with a similar starting XI to what brought them victory against Austin FC seven weeks ago, with Damet most likely pressing hard and tempting SKC to pursue the ball and stretch the lines. 

“I know what it means for the people here in town, and for the fans, and also for the players.” Damet finished. “All the focus is on us, our preparation. We're all excited to compete, and I think this is going to make a good game as well.”

A St. Louis win would tie the all-time series and bring CITY SC within a point of the final playoff spot. A St. Louis loss would be devastating to the current level of patience among the fanbase.

Thursday’s fallout will be illuminating. 

Thanks for reading. I'll be back tomorrow.