St. Louis CITY SC lose big in Seattle
Despite Marcel Hartel's successful PK, Sounders overran St. Louis to a 4-1 loss.
Brian Schmetzer has had St. Louis’s number since the Sounders handed CITY SC the club’s first ever loss away from CITYPARK/Energizer Park in 2023. However, for Olof Mellberg’s crew, Saturday’s 4-1 performance was disastrous in just about every way.
The night started off well enough for the boys in red.
St. Louis weathered an early storm before patiently building possession downfield. They were then rewarded when Cedric Teuchert sprung into the attacking third, drove the endline, and turned his shoulder on Yeimar. Teuchert was strong on the ball, and that earned a PK attempt that Marcel Hartel would easily slot home.
“I think for the first 30 or 35 minutes we were the better team.” Mellberg said.
Then… the bottom dropped out when Paul Rothrock was fouled in the penalty area on the Sounder’s first possession after the goal.
“After that, they are much better than us in every way.” Mellberg continued. “So, I think afterwards we will see that not much was working, and they completely dominated the game afterwards.”
St. Louis survived until halftime, but Tomáš Ostrák’s injury in the 60th minute forced Olof Mellberg into an unplanned change, made even worse by the bench’s sole midfielder only cleared for a short appearance.
Immediately, the Sounders took advantage of the shift as Mykhi Joyner jumped into the wing. Obed Vargas and Ryan Kent took advantage of the additional space to pass their way into a dangerous position where Obed Vargas released a rocket to go ahead 2-1.
At that point, St. Louis chased the match.
Seattle invited the press, passed through it, and controlled just about every area of the pitch outside of the Walem, Hartel, and Jannes Horn passing triangle.
A triple sub in the 70th minute only made the problem worse as Edu Löwen, Simon Becher, and Joakim Nilsson replaced Josh Yaro, João Klauss, and Cedric Teuchert.
The group tried to push the ball forward, but Seattle took advantage of the push, and lulled CITY SC in, only to strike with Danny Musovski in the 81st minute, and Nouhou in the 90th minute.
Xande Silva’s CITY SC debut came at a tough time, but he was able to involve himself in the match—completing 7/9 passes in his 14 minute appearance.
“I think again they [Seattle] had way too many chances.” Mellberg finished.
If there is a silver lining for St. Louis it’s that Myhki Joyner looks like he belongs in MLS, and Wednesday’s US Open Cup match against Union Omaha offers a great opportunity to show the progress he has made this season.
“That's the good thing after a really disappointing game.” Mellberg said, “To have a game on Wednesday again and to be able to bounce back. And that's definitely our goal, for me and for the players as well, to show off our best.”
It’s a quick turnaround, but the schedule does, hypothetically, lighten up from here and the home matches vs San Diego FC and Sporting Kansas City should yield at least 4 points. As players slowly start to trickle off the injury list, the club has to turn the page.
Considering players returning for action, Alfredo Morales will be back from his red card suspension this week, Edu Löwen returned for 20 minutes, and Roman Bürki is slated to return any day now. Meanwhile: Rasmus Alm, Chris Durkin, and Jay Reid are progressing in their recoveries.
Playoffs are the goal and the club sits 5 points out of 9th place with 2/3rds of the season remaining—it’s not too late to turn things around but the signs are worrying.