When he’s not working, you might find St. Louis CITY SC interim head coach John Hackworth navigating city streets with his cycling team, KewlBeanz Cycling.
It’s a fun release for the soccer lifer, yet it’s one that isn’t totally removed from his day job. Ahead of this past week’s derby against Sporting Kansas City, Hackworth’s cycling buddies reminded him, ‘Hey, don’t worry about any other game, but you better beat Sporting.”
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Hackworth, of course, knew the stakes of Saturday’s match even without the playful jabs from his fellow cyclists. With only a few matches remaining this season, and the club eliminated from the postseason picture, CITY needs to build momentum ahead of 2025. And Hackworth, too, needs some big wins to prove he can make an impact in the job on a full-time basis in the future.
CITY’s 3-1 win over its rivals was a meaningful step on both fronts.
Hackworth has been pushing many of the right buttons as he rebuilds the club’s tactics on the fly. Saturday’s decisive victory felt like a solid demonstration of what his CITY squad could do next season in meaningful matches.
“I’ve been saying it for a long time that this group has the ability to be a really good team.” Hackworth said. “I am very confident that we would be a good team next year. Those guys are working towards that, and they are putting it on display against our main rival. So [I’m] really confident that we are going to be a good team next year.”
There is no guarantee that Hackworth will shed the interim tag and be named the head manager for next season. Other names are being linked as possibilities for the job, but the derby win will look very good on Hackworth’s updated CV.
For Hackworth, his case for the full-time gig starts with how he has unlocked the attack, while keeping the club’s defensive spine in place. CITY has allowed only one goal in three of its last five matches, while scoring 10 goals over that span. Showing he can get the most out of big-name summer signings Cedric Teuchert and Marcel Hartel—both of whom have combined for six goals and four assists in those past five matches—is another point in his favor.
“I like this fluidity and mobility,” Hackworth said of the group’s work in possession.
Although intricate passing patterns have been a work in progress, CITY is showing signs of progress. On Saturday, the club built its attack through short passes down the left side to Hartel and Jannes Horn, before attempting big switches down the right through Tomas Totland and Rasmus Alm.
“I like the interchanging of positions.” Hackworth said, “and I really think that’s something that these guys enjoy doing, too. You can kind of tell, when we get going in a good way, they are having fun. And when you’re playing at this level and you still enjoy it at the level they are doing it at, I think we see some positive performances coming out.”
The current setup has also attempted to address CITY’s fatal flaw this season: crosses at the far post.
The vulnerability presents itself as St. Louis builds by overloading the attack on one side of the pitch. However, when the club loses possession, the numbers on the weak side of the pitch are exploited—and that usually leaves the left center back on an island. Some of that solidity is solved by the pairing of Henry Kessler and Kyle Hiebert, but spacing has been the squad’s biggest issue this season.
“It’s a mistake that we keep making when we get overloaded on one side, and it’s correctible,” Hackworth said.
There’s still work to do. The good news is that the roster still has space to improve. But there’s no question that Hackworth has vastly improved the squad with his ideas over the summer.
Heading to LAFC on Wednesday night, Hackworth knows he needs to keep the momentum rolling.
“It’s a winning streak,” he said, “and we’re happy to have one, finally.”
