St. Louis City SC played to a scoreless draw against Colorado on Saturday night. While the result is a familiar one, I think there are plenty of reasons to remain optimistic and see the result in a different light. We’ll dive into that in my takeaways below.
1. Ball moving defenders appear to be a key in Mellberg’s system. While it’s dangerous to draw conclusions after a single match, I feel pretty comfortable here. In the preseason, we saw flashes of it but in the opener it was a constant. The three center back look of Hiebert, Kessler and Yaro combined for the most passes of any unit within Mellberg’s XI. The trio completed 219 of their 256 attempts during the game. That’s a staggering 86% of them. If we account for the wingbacks; Tomas Totland and Jannes Horn, the numbers jump to 283 out of 339 completed. They weren’t just side to side, play it safe passes either. We saw some long, line breaking passes and nice switches of play as well.
2. Kessler was strong with the Force. Ok, if you didn’t see the pregame tifo this won’t make sense; but I’m rolling with it. The central defender was in my opinion, the man of the match. He was immense defensively, tracking back on a few occasions to spoil Colorado transitions. His passing was spectacular, as he completed 63 of 67 attempts on the night. “King” Kess had seven defensive clearances, 6 recoveries, was 6/8 in duels and made one tackle as the last defender. He was a key component to a City defensive effort that help the Rapids to just .20 xG on the night. Lutz Pfannenstiel has gone on record a few times talking about the potential of Kessler as being a big reason the club acquired the young defender last season. If he continues to play at this level, City will have to offer him a new contract as his current deal expires after 2026.
3. Defensive stability didn’t come at the price of sacrificing offense. No, City didn’t find the back of the net on Saturday night; but that wasn’t for lack of opportunity. St. Louis fired 18 shots towards the Colorado goal. Only 5 of them tested Zack Steffen, but that’s a different issue. As you can see by the graphic from McLachApp, St. Louis was getting into dangerous locations. Simon Becher, especially, leading the way for the club with 1.5 xG and 1.34 xGoT. On a different day, Becher puts at least one of those chances away. João Klauss, on the other hand, wasn’t as productive. The designated player never quite found his stride in the opener. Klauss created four chances for himself but only equated for just .23 xG according to FotMob. This indicates that he wasn’t getting especially close to the target or producing the same quality opportunities. FBref has Klauss’ average shot distance at 13.6m, compared to just 7.8 for Becher. St. Louis will need both of them, along with Cedric Teuchert, who appeared as a substitute to find their scoring boots if the club hopes to turn these draws into victories.
4. Edu Löwen in a deeper role works. Ok, this isn’t really a surprise, given what we saw from Löwen last year. However, as someone who speculated that he’d get to be more progressive and forward flowing in Mellberg’s new system, it was a different look than I expected. Alongside Akil Watts in the midfield, Löwen was definitely more of the deeper lying six. But it didn’t stop him from facilitating play. FBref credits the German with a team leading 11 progressive passes and a long completion rate of 61.5% (8/13); reflected by the light blue on the passing map from McLachApp.
5. Marcel Hartel as a central attacking midfielder could mean exiciting things for City. Anyone who has talked City with me in the past knows that I was clamoring for Hartel to get time as a central midfielder. Even before he ended the 2024 season with comments about wanting to play in his preferred position, I thought it just made sense with his playmaking ability on the ball. I have to say, I like most of what I saw on Saturday night. Not every move came off as planned, but he created a team leading 9 shot creating actions with five of those coming from live ball plays. I know, it’s only one game; but I think there is some real potential for him to help take this City attack to the next level.
6. The elephant in the room: Klauss. I’ve avoided this topic for as long as I can. Did Klauss have a great game? No. Was he terrible? No. But for a DP #9, expectations are rightfully high. I can praise his off the ball movement and wax poetically about how he creates space and plays an unselfish game. However, his 34 touches in the game were the lowest of any player who played the full 90 minutes on Saturday night. I believe he can succeed in this system. He did generate the second most shots, behind Becher. But, with a price tag of more than $1.7M, he’s expected to be a game changer who puts the ball into the net. It’s only one game, but if this becomes a trend it’ll make for some interesting decisions down the road.
We’ll see how these takeaways continue to trend with City hits the road this weekend. St. Louis will play San Diego in their inaugural home opener at Snapdragon Stadium on Saturday night at 9:30 p.m. CT.
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.
