The lights will shine extra bright at Energizer Park as St. Louis City SC welcomes Columbus Crew to town for Sunday Night Soccer. The hosts ride a three-game skid into this one as City continues to search for its’ scoring boots this season. The Crew, meanwhile, are sitting atop the Eastern Conference as they have yet to lose this season. Given the contrast in form, it’s shaping up to be the biggest test yet for a depleted St. Louis side.
No Cucho, No Problem
Columbus sold its’s star designated player, Cucho Hernandez, early in the transfer window but the visitors haven’t lost a step in 2025. Diego Rossi and Jacen Russell-Rowe have paced the Crew to an unbeaten run through seven matches with the pair netting seven of Columbus’ 10 goals thus far.
Wilfried Nancy has his side playing an extremely structured style with players moving seamlessly between positions and spaces without compromising shape or structure. They have a +5 goal differential and average the second most possession of any team in MLS at just over 57% per match, something he credits to the relationships built between his players.
“I believe the connection between 1, 2, 3, 4 players is more powerful than one player,” Nancy said on Friday. “So, all of my philosophy is built on that. For me this is the most important; the desire to compete as a team and the desire to improve as an individual player. What I try to teach them is relationships. How I can understand my players, how we can run together offensively and defensively. If we are able to that, we are able to be dangerous; if we are not, we are going to be average.”
When it comes to the upcoming tilt with St. Louis, he noted an uptick in pressure City has applied when pressing in recent weeks.
“The last two games, they have been aggressive. So St. Louis, they do it during goal kick. After that they are more low block, medium block but they defend really well and then they counter.” Nancy told reporters Friday. “This is more about recognizing the offensive transition. It means when we attack, to attack well, to defend well and to stop the counterattack when the moments come.”
Mellberg Still Looking for Quality in His Team
The vibes on the other bench aren’t as high as first year head coach Olof Mellberg faced a tough line of questioning on Friday. St. Louis hasn’t scored from open play in more than 400 minutes and has been playing a much more defensive style as of late. Mellberg indicated that wasn’t a designed tactic.
“It wasn’t a deliberate choice,” he told reporters Friday. “I’ve said it before. We’ve had a good position in our high defending and it’s a lot about individual quality. If we’re able to win the ball or not. If not, we have to go mid-block or low block like all other teams. In our attacking game and our build up; if we lose the ball a lot or lost it easily, we end up defending; so it’s not a deliberate choice.”
As for the final third, the City gaffer reiterated it has been an area of focus for some time now.
“We’ve been working on it for a long time and in the preseason as well,” he said. “Our finishing is something that put a lot of effort into from the start. We have probably put more effort into our attacking game but the qualities of the team have made us play the way we have been playing. Hopefully the improvements we make in training will give us some goals in the future.”
The task of ending that scoreless streak will be a tough one against a Columbus side that has yet to lose a match.
“They have a good roster,” Mellberg said. “They built a team with high intensity players who are really good on the ball. They focus a lot on build up; a lot of movement, a lot of rotations there; a very dynamic team with a lot players who can run a lot with high intensity. Most of the games they’ve played so far they’ve had the majority of possession; so you have to have a good game plan for all phases of the game.”
Starting XI and Prediction
The MLS player status reports won’t come out until later today but it can be assumed that City will be without Roman Bürki, Joakim Nilsson, Jannes Horn, Rasmus Alm, Tomas Totland, Chris Durkin and Edu Löwen again this weekend. With a long injury list and a few poor performances against Kansas City, it will be interesting to see if Mellberg makes changes to his starting squad.
I’m going to keep pushing for Timo Baumgartl to get a look in the back line so he slots in for Nilsson on the left side in my predicted XI. I’m keeping Hiebert and Watts on the right, just due to chemistry and the fact that City doesn’t have proven depth at right wing back. I expect the rest of the starting squad to be largely the same as it was in Kansas but it wouldn’t surprise me to see Simon Becher get a start if the gameplan is to try to play vertically from the start.
Now for the painful part. As much as the City fan in me wants to find some way to rationalize predicting a win, I just can’t do it. The contrast in form, lack of depth and inconsistency in the final third is just too much to turn around in a single game against the Eastern Conference leaders. I’m going to say City keeps it close and falls 1-0 to the Crew at Energizer Park but if the St. Louis backline cracks early, I do fear it could be an ugly evening on home turf.
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.
