Pre-match Preview: CITY SC to face Minnesota in final match of 2024 season

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - This weekend, St. Louis CITY SC will travel north to play Minnesota United in its final match of the 2024 Major League Soccer season.

After taking three points in its final home match of the year, CITY SC will take the pitch one last time as the 2024 season wraps up.

It’s been a bumpy ride, but a blazing light shines at the end of this club’s tunnel.

Finishing Strong at Home

October 5 marked the final time St. Louis soccer fans would congregate to cheer on their club at home in the 2024 season. And what a final showing it was for those fans.

St. Louis shut out fellow Western Conference opponents Houston Dynamo FC 3-0.

Simon Becher made a fiery return to the starting XI with a goal in the 14th minute. After taking the 1-0 lead into the half, Becher increased his club’s advantage with a composed chip shot off a beautiful overhead ball by Marcel Hartel to make it 2-0 CITY.

As the match began to wind down, St. Louis delivered more shining moment at home as Jake Nerwinski scored his first goal of the season, sending CITYPARK into a frenzy.

Roman Bürki earned his 15th career MLS shutout. The captain’s five saves included two very near goals that could’ve easily changed the match’s momentum.

Marcel Hartel recorded two assists, leaving him with a club-leading total of seven on the year. Becher and Hartel were both named to the MLS Team of the Matchday.

St. Louis will head into 2025 with a 3-0-0 record against the Dynamo at CITYPARK.

That’s A Wrap

St. Louis will wrap up its 2024 campaign on the road, facing Minnesota United for the second time this season.

The Loons have already secured their spot in the MLS Playoffs but will be looking to solidify their eighth place in the standings to avoid playing in the Wild Card Round.

Last time these two sides met was in CITYPARK, where Minnesota handed St. Louis its only loss in September. The match, which ended 3-1, saw goals from Minnesota’s Bongokuhle Hlongwane and Kelvin Yeboah, two goalscoring leaders on the club.

Senior midfielder Robin Lod has amassed a club-leading 15 assists on the year, tied for third in all of MLS.

Minnesota is coming off a 1-0 victory over Vancouver Whitecaps FC, they have only conceded two goals in their previous five matches. The Loons hold the No. 7 spot in the Western Conferences and will have a shot at claiming No. 6 if they can secure three points against St. Louis.

St. Louis is No. 12 in the Western Conference, holding a six-point lead over rivals Sporting KC. Any chance of making the playoffs is long gone by now, but a win in its final match could bump this club up a couple of spots in the standings to close out the year.

CITY SC has won three of its last five, which included the loss to Minnesota a month ago. João Klauss, Eduard Löwen, and Cedric Teuchert lead the club with five goals each. Löwen and Teuchert each have four assists as well, with Marcel Hartel’s seven set-ups leading the club.

St. Louis has only tasted victory once on the road this year, and they’ll have one more opportunity to repeat that this weekend.

“For us, we’re concentrating on us, and we’d love to do nothing more than continue playing well and have a good result in Minnesota to finish our year off,” said Interim Head Coach John Hackworth.

Kick-off is set for 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19, at Allianz Field.

Reflecting On 2024

Since departing from the 2024 Leagues Cup, St. Louis’ aura has looked significantly different. The club has lost only two of its last eight matches, with four of those resulting in wins.

In comparison; CITY SC only won one of its 10 matches leading up to Leagues Cup. From May to July, St. Louis took 11 points out of a possible 48. But, from the end of August through its last match against Houston, CITY has claimed 14 out of a possible 24 points.

Much of this recent success can be attributed to one thing; scoring.

The Numbers Don’t Lie:

• Throughout the first half of the season, St. Louis was plagued by a lack of goals, leaving dozens of points on the table as the club racked up draw after draw. Exactly 11 of CITY’s first 25 matches resulted in draws. That’s 11 matches where two of the three potential points were left on the table.
• Before August, this club averaged 1.28 goals per match in 25 matches. Of those 25, CITY scored at least once in 18 of them. Of those 18, eight resulted in draws.
• To put that figure into perspective, the average number of goals scored per match for an MLS club is 1.57, according to Soccerstats.com. Some of the better-performing teams like Inter Miami (2.21) and LA Galaxy (2.06) have sured 2.0, with the less successful clubs sitting between 1.0 and 1.4.
• Since exiting the Leagues Cup in August, CITY has averaged 2.12 goals per match in eight matches. Of those eight matches, St. Louis has only gone scoreless in one of them. The kicker here: four of those remaining seven matches that saw St. Louis score resulted in wins.

All of this points to a complete turnaround in 2025. The additions of Cedric Teuchert, Marcel Hartel, and Simon Becher up front have reignited this club’s scoring potential. And after losing its vice-captain, veteran center back Tim Parker in August, St. Louis’ backline was reinforced by Henry Kessler, Jannes Horn, and CITY2 call-up Jayden Reid.

It’s unclear who will be at the helm of CITY’s 2025 campaign. Since his debut as interim head coach, John Hackworth has amassed a 5-3-5 record in MLS play. Hackworth was there for the new arrivals. He was there for the Leagues Cup. And for those reasons alone, he might be the right fit to lead St. Louis’ comeback season.

But, Sporting Director Lutz Pfannenstiel is clearly wasting no time making changes to improve the club. And the 2025 season will serve as the first test of how effective those changes were.

For more on St. Louis CITY SC, click here.

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