St. Louis City SC opening up with season-winning momentum

With the same storm cloud of midfielders as pre-season, St. Louis City SC went on the road for the franchise’s first win at Austin FC. St. Louis City SC mounted an unsuccessful 2-1 pre-season finale against Atlanta United. The team used the same 4-2-3-1 formation for the season opener at Austin FC. This time it worked.

This time City went on the road and wrote a 3-2 win in City’s history book. They won their season opener after the last five expansion teams lost theirs, dating back to 2019. In fact, Los Angeles FC in 2018 is the only expansion team to win their first-ever match out of 11 MLS new teams dating back to 2019, according to St. Louis media relations. This has all worked exactly like St. Louis had practiced it.

Austin FC made sure throughout the game that they opposed the visitors by showing the same formation scheme. But it didn’t get a winning result.

St. Louis City SC starts the new MLS season off right

The most significant difference for St. Louis is the lone striker, Joao Klauss. He scored the game-winner in the 88th minute assisted by Nicholas Gioacchini (a forward playing as an attacking midfielder). The equalizer came in the 78th minute by midfielder Jared Stroud.

It all started with defender Tim Parker catching an Eduard Lowen corner kick for a goal in the 24th minute. The overall theme for this game is a persistent midfield nucleus. This theme will continue throughout this season, both at home and on the road.

This produces a constant midfield storm cloud on the pitch, attacking and disrupting. It’s what St. Louis SC coaches and front-office planners worked for from the time of their initial player selections.

What it earned the planners in this first game is exemplary performances from Klauss, out-rating everyone on the pitch by scouting reports.  Stroud, Lowen, and Parker followed closely in the ratings. Everyone else rated competently. But Austin FC had players rated well, also.

Sebastian Driussi and Jon Gallagher rated highly for Austin. They scored on assists, respectively, by Leo Vaisanen and Diego Fagundez. So St. Louis players will have to be vigilant. They’ll have to stay on target for the team, especially against strong opponents like Austin FC.

Austin posted eight dispossessions, 59.7% possession, 85% successful passes, and 18 dribbles. Those numbers significantly bested St. Louis City SC. Where St. Louis got the edge and then the win over Austin is matching the home team with 22 aerials won and out-posting them on tackles 27-13. They also out-shot the home team 18-13.

So St. Louis City SC took the first three points on the table. They take this back to St. Louis for their home opener. They face Charlotte FC next. That team lost their opener at home. They’re looking for three points.