St. Louis CITY FC Scouting Report: Needing and Wanting. Or Vice Versa

Why not 9 center backs? Why not 13?

To get the big dodge out of the way, who knows what to make of St. Louis CITY FC right now, what with Olof Mellberg getting shit-canned for an unmissable lack of results and, I’m told, a hard kink for fielding eight center backs in his starting XIs? At any rate, he’s gone, replaced by interim head coach David Critchley…who, for the record, guided the team to its first win since mid-March.

To compile this dossier, I jumped around about…65 minutes’ worth of real-time footage of St. Louis’ 0-1 road loss at the Colorado Rapids and their gently weird 2-1 home win over the San Jose Earthquakes. Normally, I’d put more time into the road game, but suspect the coaching change to color their approach in enough ways that I think that anyone bored and restless enough will benefit more from watching long outtakes of the San Jose game. If nothing else, and barring injuries (looking at Cedric Teuchert here), I’d expect the team that lines up against the Portland Timbers on Sunday will look more like the starting XI versus San Jose. I’ll dig into that more below, but let’s start with…

The Facts
Record/Stats
3-8-5, 14 pts., 13 gf, 21 ga (-8); home 2-3-3, away 1-5-2
Last 10 Results: LLDDLLDLLW
Strength/Location of Schedule
@ SKC (0-2 L); v CLB (1-2 L); v VAN (0-0 D); @ LAFC (2-2 D); @ SEA (1-4 L); v SD (1-2 L); v SKC (2-2 D); @ MIN (0-3 L); @ COL (0-1 L); v SJ (2-1 W)

Clearly, things have gone coach-firingly bad for St. Louis this season and, based on the time I put into the San Jose win, I’m not sure now firmly they’ve turned the page. Big picture, St. Louis kept games tighter until recent weeks (see losses at Seattle and Minnesota), but the defense still tilts toward the stronger side of the league average. The attack, unfortunately, leans harder in the other direction. Still, soothe – which bring me to…

Talking Point No. 1: The Timbers Have to Match “Playing for Their Jobs right now” Intensity
That’s it. St. Louis looked listless and gun-shy at Colorado, at least until they had to chase the game after Darren Yapi’s 41st minute goal forced them to chase the game (weird one; also kinda notable; here's the other one by Josef Martinez). They also defended deep (to the point of nesting) in the stretches I watched and played like they forgot St. Louis’ hard-pressing tradition. Maybe the game plan tilts toward allowing shots from range, or maybe that's just what Mellberg's approach encouraged indirectly by way of tactics. I saw more pressing versus San Jose and, again, I expect to see that against the Timbers, road game be damned. St. Louis may press and foul half as hard as they used to, but Portland should come ready to battle…like, really battle.

Talking Point No. 2: A Quick and Dirty Inspection of the Personnel
With the caveat that I may not be 100% current, here’s my rapid read on St. Louis last two roster: Roman Burki is a smart, solid goalkeeper; center back Timo Baumgartl showed well in both games (i.e., smart reads, good tackles) and I can’t imagine Critchley will pull (midfielder) Chris Durkin into the backline, but weirder shit has happened; don’t sleep on Jayden Reid because the right back has speed, I barely noticed Joey Zalinsky (left back), so assume he defends; the official roster for the San Jose game makes less sense than the 4-2-3-1 announced in the broadcast, and the “2” there was Eduard Lowen and Conrad Wallem…who has been suspended for the Portland game (red card), so probably expect Durkin there if they go with the same lineup, I’ll have more on Lowen later; the “3” included Celio Pompeu (quick feet, good isolated), Teuchert, and Marcel “My Name Sounds Like Wes Anderson Made It Up” Hartel, and, despite low production on the season, that’s a talented group, lots of mobility, etc. Joao Klauss was healthy last time I heard and he plays like a wrecking ball with soft feet – i.e., always physical, reasonably quick and blessed with more technical upside than your average player of that size.

He is the concierge at the hotel, of course.

Getting back to the games I watched, for all their boosted aggression versus San Jose, St. Louis looks entirely willing to compact into a knot of six, seven defenders inside the area. A pretty clear, “first, do no harm” vibe attends the broad approach and that’s what I expect from them in Portland – i.e., a press that doesn’t risk too much in the other direction. And that brings me to…

Talking Point No. 3: Defend the Long Ball
While I did see St. Louis put together a careful and competent multi-touch attack once (at Colorado, fwiw), I saw them play over the top and into space a lot more often, even at home. While this doesn’t pan out often – then again, what is the long ball but low-percentage swill? – it did lead to their two goals versus San Jose. If I had to flag the greatest threat, I’d flag the goal scored by Klauss (as wrecking ball) with the assist coming from Lowen; note especially, the time Lowen had to make both passes in that sequence and, yeah, maybe don’t let him have a semester's worth of time to noodle on options. I mean, imagine Klauss banging up against Kamal Miller…

I’m not sure Teuchert will be there - he limped off after a non-contact injury (from clearing the ball) - but Hartel can do the same kinds of things and might have a stronger shot and, again, Pompeu’s squirrelly when isolated (saw him more on Juan David Mosquera’s side). Otherwise, expect to see some mix of the same players that St. Louis trotted out over the past two games.

I don’t really have more than this – and, honestly, I shouldn’t (I know this team as a "Timothy" at most, as in no nicknames yet). Overall, though, St. Louis tracks as a struggling team that has dropped a lot of points this season. If I had to sum up their 2025 identity, I’d start with that. The attacking players – e.g., Teuchert, Klauss, Hartel, and, late addition, Xande Silva – haven’t delivered and that goes most of the way to explaining why St. Louis stews at 14th in the West. Still, they seem willing to bunker, aka, the bane of any Timbers attack for the past 5 years, and playing the ball to Lowen and asking him to stretch Portland’s defense isn’t the craziest game plan. I do expect them to press here and there – particularly given Portland’s small, fast field and the fact that your average St. Louisianan sweats at least twice as much as your average denizen of Stumptown. For all that, there’s one more thing to watch for…

Talking Point No. 4: A Particular Form of Options
St. Louis is not a creative team and I suspect why that’s why what midfield creativity they have involves dropping Lowen deep to give him time/space on the ball so he can hit those runs. I named some expected options above, but St. Louis can also call in (or start) Simon Becher or Xande Silva. On the one hand, sure, I’m not expecting to see either player in the MLS Hall of Fame, but they are professional soccer players and, in their own, specific ways (big guy shifty shit for Becher; speed for Silva), provide St. Louis with a viable late goal threat.

We’ll see how it plays out Sunday (SUNDAY, Sunday, sunday). Till then…