The offensive struggles continue for St. Louis CITY SC.
Finding the back of the net hasn’t been easy for the club amid the continued absences of Rasmus Alm, Tomáš Ostrák, and Célio Pompeu. At times, it has felt downright impossible—CITY’s recent goalless streak lasted 341 minutes between Luis Suarez’s own goal at Miami on June 1 and Indiana Vassilev’s strike against Atlanta United on Saturday night at CITYPARK.
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And yet, somehow, St. Louis managed to find results during that drought. But doing so over the long-term is simply not sustainable. Despite ranking 15th in Major League Soccer in expected goals, CITY is 23rd in goals scored per match. Expected goals, however, can be a volume stat and the club has not been dangerous enough. It ranks 24th in big chances created.
So, what’s a team to do?
The bad news is that there’s no quick fix. There are still five matches to go before the summer transfer window opens. St. Louis last week said goodbye to one forward (Aziel Jackson traded to Columbus), and also seems to be poised to trade another (Samuel Adeniran).
The good news is that Cedric Teuchert is due to arrive this week to begin training with CITY. And while the club settled for another draw on Saturday, the St. Louis attack broke through in a way that could bode well for the near future.
CITY won the ball high up the pitch, recycled possession through CITY2 call-up Jayden Reid, and scored off a back-post cross that was headed into the mixer through João Klauss’ physical play. For St. Louis, these could be things on which to build.
“I thought we created a lot of moments through the lines,” CITY head coach Bradley Carnell says. “I thought we could have been cleaner in transition a little bit [with] some wayward passes. Can we connect in the final third? Can we connect on the weak side? Can we play vertically in the red zones? I thought we missed a couple of crucial moments, but having said that, we had a ton of looks and some really nice moments.”
Failing in those crucial moments has been the unfortunate calling card of CITY this season. At the same time, it’s a trend that goalkeeper Roman Bürki knows his squad can fix—though he remains frustrated that it’s taking so long to get it done.
“It’s the first time that we scored a goal [in 341 minutes] and then we gave the game away,” Bürki says. “Or I would say, we didn’t kill the game. We had chances again; we didn’t do that. Or we scored one goal. Did we defend the freaking goal? Don’t know how many of these moments we’re going to allow against us this season, but we just need to focus. We need to be ready in every situation. With our players on the field, we need to be ready and we can’t give up.”
As Bürki worries about his club’s ability to “kill the game,” it speaks to the attack’s need to create more dangerous opportunities. Eduard Löwen, for example, has been the club’s primary chance creator—he leads the club in dangerous chances created despite missing a chunk of the first half of this season.
For CITY, the answer may be as simple as letting its creator cook.
“I thought Edu Löwen was excellent [on Saturday],” Carnell says. “His willingness to defend in the 94th, 95th minute—a sprint at full pace to do what’s best for the team—that shows what kind of teammate he is. I saw many positives, and we’ll take these away for sure.”
