St. Louis City SC finally knocked off the stingy Seattle Sounders with a 1-0 victory at Energizer Park last weekend. It was the first time the club had taken any points against the Sounders who were 4-0-0 against St. Louis coming into the tilt. Thanks to a fantastic free kick from Edu Löwen and another strong defensive effort, City was able claim all the points with Ben Lundt in goal for the injured Roman Bürki. But what did we learn in the win?
- No Bürki, no problem? Ok, not quite. Lundt wasn’t tested despite St. Louis being heavily out possessed. Seattle had more than 60% of the ball but managed to force Lundt to make just a single save. The visitors generated just 0.8 expected goals (xG) on 15 total shots. It’s worth noting that Seattle was missing a few key pieces, but to me that doesn’t diminish another great performance by the City defense. I’ll be curious to see how Lundt rounds into form in the coming weeks with Bürki set to miss at least a month.
- The Totland injury may be a bigger blow than Bürki. No, that’s not a typo. With a defensive unit that has been so strong this season; I’m willing to take my chance and roll with Lundt for a while. He’s been the understudy to Bürki for several seasons and there’s a reason St. Louis has kept him in that role. As for Totland, who pulled his hamstring in the win over Seattle, that’s a tougher role to fill right now. Under Olof Mellberg, City has been a side that builds down the flanks and utilizes width in the attack. Totland has played a major role in that and having him on the right adds dynamic flexibility on that side and reliable play defensively. With him sidelined for a month or more, City will have to rely on Akil Watts, Joey Zalinsky or could invert Conrad Wallem into that role. While there are options, I am just concerned about the potential fall off and the ramifications it could have for a backline that has been nearly impenetrable this season.
Chris Durkin, dynamic attacker? The midfielder has returned to fitness and put in a shift. He played the full 90’ and was among the leaders in several offensive categories for St. Louis. He was 2nd in total touches with 55, completed the 3rd most passes with 29 and registered the most passes into the final third with 10. That’s not to say he wasn’t active defensively. Durkin was 2nd in defensive actions with 11 in the contest and his heat map from Sofascore is reflective of a more box-to-box role compared to what I think many City fans were expecting him to play heading into the season. Time will tell how Mellberg really wants to utilize him.- Mellberg’s definition of control is different than mine. When I think of “controlling” a match, I think in terms of possession and the gap between the teams on the scoreboard. Based on what we’ve seen through four games, Mellberg views control in a more defensive sense. His trend of making defensively minded substitutions to ensure that the backline had energy to hold against the opposition pushing in the second half continued Sunday. The boss did concede after the match that he’d like more possession in matches; while also praising the way the defense has limited opponents to such a low number of quality chances over the first month of the season.
- St. Louis has to figure out the offense. To be clear, this isn’t a slight on Cedric Teuchert; who had far from his best match against the Sounders. While he’s played the center forward role before, it didn’t seem to suit him or the overall attack for the club over the weekend. Teuchert recorded just 17 total touches and 0 shots over 62’ of action. It was really a microcosm of the offensive effort on the night. According to FBref, City logged 1.05 of its’ total 1.3 xG after the 77’. I credit most of that to Seattle throwing players forward to chase the game, more than I do City figuring out how to play offensively. There’s too much offensive fire power with the likes of Marcel Hartel, João Klauss, Simon Becher and Teuchert as options in the final third for St. Louis to need to rely on a superb defensive effort every weekend. Getting the offense going will not only make defending more comfortable in front the backup keeper, but it’ll take the pressure off and get the club playing more freely. Goals are good; and I’d like to see more of them.
This weekend St. Louis heads to Philadelphia to face a pair of familiar foes. Bradley Carnell took over as manager for the Union in the offseason and acquired midfielder Indiana Vassilev earlier in the transfer window. Carnell’s Union sit 2nd in the East and have established themselves as an aggressive, high pressing side that will look to put the St. Louis backline under pressure often. It will be interesting to see how Mellberg sets his team up to combat those familiar Carnell tactics on Saturday night at Subaru Park.
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.
