St. Louis CITY FC/Leagues Cup Scouting Report: A Mirror Into Portland's Past

legend.

Won’t lie. I would have loved to see the Timbers draw FC Juarez. If you haven’t watched the penalty shoot-out for their loss at St. Louis CITY FC, do yourself a solid and watch it. I’ve never seen a ‘keeper do that and it was a delight…

Speaking of Portland’s actual opponent…

In the interest of making these posts more reddit-friendly, and with apologies to people who come to this space for long-form content, I’m reducing Scouting Reports to literally five things I’d tell anyone about St. Louis CITY FC…well, aside from some basics – e.g., they have struggled to actually win all season, even at home, and that they have experienced some heavy turnover of (very late; farewell, Tim Parker, sweet prince). With that out of the way…allons y.

1) A Smarter Press, an Absent Wrecking Ball
St. Louis still defends quite high and leaves a fair amount of (exploitable) vertical space within that shape, but I haven’t seen them run the drunk-octane high-press that served them so well in 2023. The wrecking ball from the subtitle is Joao Klauss, who did as much as any player to make that work. He hasn’t appeared a ton in 2024 and hasn’t even made the bench during this Leagues Cup. At any rate, they have pressing triggers within that high defensive line and release them pretty effectively if a team can’t take them out of it. Related…

2) They Could Have Gone Down 0-4 v FC Dallas
Dallas had a penalty, so it should have been 0-2. Petar Musa missed the ensuing kick and then skied a free header into the stands. That goes back to the vertical space St. Louis leaves open behind that high defensive line. St. Louis ran them down by the end of the game, but Dallas beat it clean enough to find all kinds of daylight at least five times in that first half (see if you agree). Playing transition has been Portland’s bread-‘n’-butter for countless seasons, so I’m optimistic about that dynamic, but they’ll have to get through that first line of pressure.

3) Players So New, The Mothership Doesn’t Have Pictures of ‘Em
Well, they do have one for Simon Becher, a St. Louis native who started with Vancouver, but Marcel Hartel and Cedric Teuchert (both German) are represented by grey little heads on official MLS Content. New as all three are to St. Louis – think Friday will be just the fourth game for the Germans – it’s hard to get a read on them. Both the Germans scored against Dallas – “meh” goals, fwiw (a half-trash goal and a penalty kick) – but they strike me as efficient players who let the ball and teamwork do the talking, i.e., they don’t project as great one-v-one threats. I’ve seen more of Becher and he plays in a similar mold – i.e., a mobile player who looks it simple as he looks to combine, only with the post-up play stuff thrown in (think a smaller, faster Brian White). My guess is that defending all that will mostly involve tracking movement off the ball.

Hunt, (not literally) kill

4) A Regular Threat That Has Been Present
As most people know, Eduard Lowen doubles as a deep-lying playmaker and a set-piece deliverer extraordinaire. I watched both of St. Louis’ Leagues Cup games and Dallas, in particular, decided to defend Lowen’s passes as opposed to getting pressure on him as the passer. I’d counsel the opposite. I don’t want to see Portland break their shape chasing him around, but, along the lines of St. Louis’ press, I’d like to see the Timbers sic the closest player on him any time he gets on the ball, just to give him something else to think about besides his next pass.

5) Catch as Catch Can
I’ve seen stray arguments here and there that St. Louis looks improved in this Leagues Cup. Without dismissing that argument out of hand, it doesn’t match what I saw over their past two games. They frequently looked disconnected and, honestly, got in their own way as much as the opposition did. If that sounds familiar to you, devoted Timbers fan, it should because they looked so much like early-2024 Timbers that I couldn’t unsee the similarity once I saw it. Per the title of this section, they have only been dangerous on the (semi-)rare occasions they put things together. It took the Timbers a while to get their attacking players on the same page and it’s entirely possible the same will apply for St. Louis. The point is, any sane team doesn’t want to be on the wrong side of their happy moment. I think most of us agree that the Timbers defense has improved and, based on what I’ve seen of St. Louis, I like their chances for keeping that going, but they will still need to manage St. Louis’ rare moments.

That’s it for this one. I’m still undecided as to whether I’m going to tighten up these posts further and post the less expansive version exclusively to reddit, or whether I’ll just start posting these preview posts directly to reddit. I’m trying to make room for another project (and aging and/or a growing need to sleep more), so it’s possible it’ll be that and weekly wrap-up post that combines hot Timbers action with MLS action more broadly. Suffice to say I’ve got kinks to work out…just fewer than I used to…

At any rate, we’ll see how this plays out Friday. Between the way they’re playing and the way St. Louis hasn’t (as I see it) really improved, I like Portland’s chances.