Games away from home continue to be a challenge for St. Louis City SC after a draw in San Diego. It was hard fought point that left the manager wanting more offensively but left some room for optimism from the clubs’ captain. Let’s dive into what we learned in San Diego.
1. Olof Mellberg appears to have fixed defensive woes that plagued the club in the past. 
There’s no other way to describe it. St. Louis has had long spells where the defense has leaked like a sieve. It was a large part of the 2024 season and a major factor leading up to Bradley Carnell’s dismissal. Under the former Premier League defender, the defense has been resolute. The shift to a back five has formed a much needed barrier in front of Roman Bürki whose posted back to back clean sheets to open the season. San Diego was a much different challenge on Saturday as the newest MLS franchise forced City defenders into making 9 blocks and provided a test they passed with flying colors. The Chrome Azul fired 14 shots towards the St. Louis goal but generated just 0.84 expected goals; reflecting just how difficult City made it on the hosts to find quality opportunities.
According to FotMob, the City starting defenders combined for 27 clearances, a whopping 41 defensive actions, 13 recoveries and were not beaten on the dribble once. I cannot see a way that at least one of them, especially Henry Kessler, isn’t named to the MLS’ Team of the Matchday when its revealed in the coming days. The man dubbed “King Kess” is proving to be every bit the player Sporting Director Lutz Pfannenstiel alluded to him being when he was acquired from New England via trade last season.
Courtesy MLSStat
2. The defense may be fixed, but where’d the offense go? After firing 18 shots on goal in the opener against Colorado, St. Louis was limited to just 2 shots in San Diego. The visitors couldn’t find a foothold in this game and struggled to find any spells of meaningful possession. As the heat map from MLSStat reflects, San Diego was dominant in nearly every part of the pitch as they owned 72% of the possession. The field tilt and other statistics are equally as reflective of that dominance as the hosts registered 90% of the field tilt and held a 36-7 advantage in touches in the offensive penalty area.
Explaining the St. Louis struggles in generating offense is multifaceted. The hosts were effective in pressing City in their own defensive half. The San Diego press created multiple overloads in the midfield that necessitated a change in formation at the half from Mellberg. In addition to the tactical battle, City was not good on the ball in this one; Mellberg said as much after the game. “If you lose the ball easily and unnecessarily eight, nine, ten, eleven times in the first half; you end up defending basically the whole half,” he continued. “I thought we could have been much more confident on the ball; driving up the ball forward more often from our build up. We made it too easy; ended up with Roman too many times playing backwards when we had possibilities of taking the ball forward and there were spaces to find and we didn’t really exploit them.” City also didn’t win many of the second ball opportunities with countless flicks into space going to no one and a number of errant passes resulting in easy turnovers as the Boys in Red registered just 70% passing accuracy on the night.
3. City need to have a plan when they cannot build or have transition play flow through their width. It’s only one game; so I won’t rush to judgement but this match it seemed there was no real plan when we weren’t able to build into the offensive phase using our width. The opening match saw St. Louis flex a lot of muscle working through Totland on the right side but San Diego completely neutralized both Totland and Wallem with each only registering a single touch in the box and one pass each into the final third. City has to find an alternative way to attack or I fear it could turn into a lot of defensive soccer this season.
4. Roman Bürki is right; frustratingly so. After the match, the St. Louis keeper was quick to point out that the team is growing early in the season. “If you compare our performance that we had in a game like this last season, we would have never gotten away with a point,” he said. As much as I hate to say it; it is a step forward. Mellberg has been tasked with rebuilding this club into version 2.0 and fighting for a defensive point, in a league where away wins are somewhat of a rarity is a positive step in that direction. 
I think a large number of fans, including myself, were hoping for faster results. We saw Mellberg’s hire as one that would bring immediate results; fixing the defense, reinvigorating Klauss and our attack while brining us wins. A pair of draws has deflated that excitement but I think it’s a good moment to pause and take a breath. The captain is right; there isn’t a problem with the team right now. We’ve shown we can play attractive, attacking soccer and we’ve now shown that we can play that ugly, defensive game and grind out a result on the road. Sure, we wan’t more than draws but a pair of clean sheets to start the season isn’t bad. We’ve got 32 more match weeks; it’s a marathon, not a sprint. So I’m going to take a breath, stop over analyzing and give it some time before I start shouting we have a problem.
5. City has to get maximum points in their upcoming fixtures against Los Angeles and Seattle. I realize this isn’t about the game in San Diego; but we have to take pieces of that performance forward and use them to get results in the next two games. City has a key opportunity to play teams that should be heavily rotated. When St. Louis faces Galaxy, it will be LA’s third game in eight days which also includes traveling to Costa Rica just four days before our tilt. Seattle, meanwhile, will face City in what will be their fifth game in a 15 day stretch that also includes traveling to Mexico. I’ll dive more into the Galaxy fixture in the week ahead, but this is a prime opportunity for City build confidence and consistency offensively while earning much needed points.
As always, thanks for reading! Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions with me in the comments here or find me on X or Bluesky.
Taking his passion for soccer and St. Louis to the next level, Jeremy aims to provide analytical coverage of all this St. Louis City SC.
