Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber ate lunch Saturday at Guido’s Pizzeria and Tapas on The Hill. Garber traveled to town to help christen CITYPARK, the crown jewel of the league’s stadium portfolio. But before he could watch the first MLS game in the facility’s history, and join a St. Louis party that was decades in the making, the commish first needed a bite to eat.
At Guido’s, Garber sat for his meal and looked around the dining room. On one wall, he spotted a collection of framed soccer jerseys. On another wall, televisions were tuned to an MLS matinee matchup between the Seattle Sounders and defending league champions LA FC. Meanwhile, a few folks approached Garber’s table and asked him to pose for photos. In the moment, everything felt right to Garber. Not that he needed further affirmation that the league had entered the right market. But the warm welcome did get Garber thinking: MLS had only just arrived in St. Louis, and yet he already felt like it had found a home.
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“This is a community with soccer at its heart,” Garber said. “And that doesn’t happen everywhere in MLS.”
The 22,423 fans who packed into CITYPARK for St. Louis CITY SC’s 3-1 victory over Charlotte FC in the club’s inaugural home game proved Garber’s point. The majority of the crowd stood for all 90-plus minutes of the come-from-behind thriller, propelling the home team through a physical and chippy contest. As CITY charged back after conceding an early strike, diehard supporters behind the north goal waved flags, hammered drums, and engaged in full-throated, non-stop chanting until the final whistle. On the day MLS came home, St. Louis made the occasion all its own.
“I said to the players and I said to the staff, ‘This has been incredible,’” CITY head coach Bradley Carnell said.
Carnell has embraced the city’s soccer history during his first year in town, recognizing his role as a steward of the sport’s latest chapter in the region. For Carnell, the present is important. But understanding the game’s evolution in St. Louis is crucial. He’s passed that belief to his players, giving them a history lesson during the preseason on the role the region played in growing U.S. soccer during the 20th century. It matters to Carnell that CITY players see the shoulders on which they stand.
The head coaching job in St. Louis carries great weight for Carnell, who doesn’t shy from the energy and expectations he feels from fans around the region. In that way, he’s been heartened by the support. Carnell, for example, is not sure whether his neighbors know who he is and what he does for a living, but he appreciates their buy-in, nonetheless. Driving to CITY’s 32-acre compound each morning, Carnell sees CITY flags and bumper stickers “the whole way down the road,” he says.
He’s not the only one.
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Midfielder Eduard Löwen says fans stop him to say hello when he’s in the grocery store, or out on walks. Goalkeeper Roman Bürki says his neighbors are quick to say hello and wish him luck when they run into him in the elevator of his St. Louis apartment. On Saturday, Bürki—CITY’s captain—received the first cheers of the night when he took the field for warmups an hour before kickoff. As he jogged toward his box, Bürki, who has played on some of the grandest stages of the international game, raised his hands and returned the applause. On a night when St. Louisans took the opportunity to show their love for the new team in town, CITY made sure to reciprocate.
“When I talked to the team before the game, I told them, ‘Suck it in. Take [the crowd’s energy] as a push,’” Bürki said.
There were nervy moments, to be sure. Carnell says he saw his team get caught up in the emotions of the night, perhaps trying to do too much too soon. Twenty-five minutes in, CITY was down a goal. But St. Louis kept coming. Buoyed by a Charlotte own-goal that tied the game in the 41st minute, CITY took the lead on a penalty strike by Löwen moments before halftime. João Klauss added insurance when he converted on a Charlotte miscue midway through the second half. After the final whistle, CITY’s players and staff walked the perimeter of the field to salute the sold-out crowd.
“We have set the bar really high,” Carnell said. “There’s not too many stadiums with this atmosphere. I can tell you that right now.”
Saturday was a victory celebration—and it began even before CITY’s win was clinched. For the many locals who supported St. Louis professional soccer in its earlier incarnations, and for those who fought for years to bring MLS to the city, this weekend was—all at once—a tribute to what was and what’s still to come.
“One of the things I said to the ownership group was that we build a fan following and a supporters’ culture in many cities in this country that have to learn about the game,” Garber said. “In this city, we delivered the game—the next generation of what MLS is and what it can be.”
And now, Garber says, the league is home. Should MLS have entered the market sooner? Garber smiles at the question.
“Good things,” he said, “come to those that wait.”
