St. Louis CITY SC: A bit more air atop MLS West with LA Galaxy draw

St. Louis CITY SC still doesn’t play for possession. But when a team like LA Galaxy allows them to possess, they can avoid a loss. Maybe even win.

In their previous loss this same week, FC Dallas didn’t allow St. Louis CITY SC to keep up and it was a 2-0 shutout. Despite a Sunday home 0-0 score at halftime, visiting LA Galaxy allowed CITY to match with eight shots apiece, plus two apiece on goal.

Their previous home halftimes where CITY hadn’t scored ended in losses. This one, with the home team staying close, ended in a 1-1 draw.

And CITY stayed close in the first half with 48% possession despite a strong attack from Galaxy. It’s all the more impressive considering the St. Louis system, which is not a possession game.

St. Louis goalkeeper Roman Burki remained the most powerful difference in the game with an exemplary, acrobatic performance. The riskiest keepers in MLS are those playing aggressively at the border of the box.

But whenever Burki got caught with an empty net in this match, the ball was there right where he was. So his aggression paid off.

After CITY netted the first goal of the match, scouts chose to deduct ratings for Galaxy keeper Jonathan Bond, rather than increase recognition of Burki’s outstanding performance. This is a mistake.

It reflects the lack of understanding throughout MLS. It’s as if because St. Louis CITY SC is an expansion team, it should be disregarded. That means Burki must be lucky so far in this match. And Bond just didn’t use all his skills.

There may indeed never be another expansion squad like St. Louis CITY SC. But this season, they never planned their first season like a confused, mostly hapless startup. And they’ve never played like such a squad. Too many among the MLS brain trust haven’t accepted that fact, yet.

Yet, by the end of the match, aggregated scouting reports rated Bond a bit higher than Burki. In truth, they both played very well and evenly overall.

That first goal came from an artful 68th-minute cross by winger Indiana Vassilev that was lobbed off the body of striker Niko Gioacchini into the bottom right corner of the net.

Then in the 85th minute Galaxy winger Douglas Costa crossed to midfielder Daniel Aguirre, who answered with a right-footed shot to the goal’s center.

With the draw, St. Louis CITY SC remains slightly ahead of Seattle Sounders FC, on top of the MLS Western Conference. By creating a little more air at the top, they continue to demonstrate they are more than expansion upstarts in MLS.