Energizer Park came alive for the first time in 2025 as 22,500 fans packed in for St. Louis City SC’s home opener on Saturday night. A sprinkling of “Kroenke Sucks” chants greeted the visiting Colorado Rapids to the field for warm ups but shortly after those jeers turned to cheers as City players took to the pitch. Energy and excitement only picked up from there as a pregame light show set the stage for what would turn out to be a strong performance from the home side.
St. Louis fed off the energy from the home fans early. Holding a firm and organized backline throughout the first half. That defensive strength allowed players to express themselves offensively which led to a dangerous free kick in the 20th minute taken by Edu Löwen. The direct free kick rattled the left post with a rebound that was recovered by Henry Kessler who played a cross into the middle that was put into the net for what St. Louis thought was the opening goal of the contest. The celebration was short lived, however, as the assistant referee raised their flag against Kessler who was deemed to be offside. City would create a few more half chances but the first half came to a scoreless close.
The home side would really find its’ offensive footing in the second half as they fired 13 shots toward the Colorado goal. in the second half. A mixture of long possession and runs in behind by João Klauss, Simon Becher and Marcel Hartel generated a number of chances but Colorado goalkeeper Zac Steffen stood up to the test en route to making 5 saves on the night. Despite holding 57% of the ball and out shooting Colorado 18-2 in the match, St. Louis just couldn’t find the winner as the two sides played to a scoreless draw.
Statistically Dominant
City generated 2.13 expected goals (xG) and held Colorado to just .26 x G on the night per G+ Gameflow on Bluesky. The statistically dominant performance left head coach Olof Mellberg feeling like his team deserved more from the game. “I mean overall it’s normally a game we win. I think we dominated most of the game. We have the stats here, it was 18-2 shots and limited them to, yeah, zero chances, basically,” Mellberg said. “There were a couple of dangerous situations in the box where we defended well but apart from that, they didn’t have any chances, and we created enough to score at least two or three goals. A little bit unlucky with the off side there on [Kessler], and we had three, four, great chances to score. Obviously, a game we should have won. But the performance was good.”
Despite failing to score, Mellberg felt there were still positives to build on offensively. “We had some great combinations from build-out, built-up, varied our game with the longer ball, the ball in behind, but some really good periods in possession, as well, where we managed to create chances,” he said. “It wasn’t an amazing performance from our point of view, but it was the first game, and we dominated. Probably should have won.”
The gaffer was also really pleased with his defensive line which featured Kessler, Josh Yaro and Kyle Hiebert as a back three. “Kyle and Josh have done well in the preseason in those positions. Kyle played everywhere, all across the back five,” he said. “Henry in the middle I thought had a great game today, and you know, we’ve had Jannes there, as well. He played wingback today.” Those four with Tomas Totland rounding out the back five put in a noteworthy performance as it was only the second time in club history that City prevented an opposing team from registering a single shot on goal during a match.
There were a few other noteworthy performances on the night as well. Midfielder Akil Watts, a standout from the preseason, was dynamic on the night. He echoed Mellberg’s sentiments postgame. “I felt we played well, and we deserved the win,” he said. “Obviously it didn’t happen, but I believe more wins will come.” Watts was part of a City team that recorded 13 draws; but he doesn’t feel that opening the season with a similar result should be concerning. “We’re not really thinking about last year. We’re thinking about this year and there’s more games to come and I feel like there’s more games to come and we’ll only get better.”
Simon Becher took home man of the match honors after generating City’s best chances of the night also remained optimistic about the club’s offensive output moving forward. “I think you saw at the end of the last season, it [relationships between forwards] was forming really well,” he said. “I think if, you know, we continue this way, a lot of goals will come.”
City close the first matchday of the 2025 season in 6th place in the West with a 0-1-0 record. They will look to build on Saturday’s performance when they travel to San Diego next weekend.
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.
