ST. LOUIS - 22,500 rabid St. Louis soccer fans and freezing temperatures greeted St. Louis City SC at the recently renamed Energizer Park on Saturday night for the team’s MLS season opener against Stan Kroenke’s Colorado Rapids.
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The first competitive game for City, but the second of the week for Chris Armas’s Rapids side, who pulled off an upset of LAFC in even colder weather the previous Tuesday. City had the defense, and had the chances, but couldn’t threaten Zack Steffen in the Rapids net in a game that finished a goalless draw.
City started a strong team in a 3-5-2 formation, with a backline of Kyle Hiebert, Henry Kessler, and Josh Yaro. Jannes Horn and Tomas Totland started as wingbacks that pushed forward into midfield and attacked. Eduard Löwen, Akil Watts, and Marcel Hartel made up the midfield, with Joao Klauss and Simon Becher serving as dual attackers.
The one constant in City’s new setup is Roman Bürki, who donned the captain’s armband and manned the City goal as usual.
Perhaps the cold, or perhaps a bit of rust, but it took a while for the teams to warm up to the occasion, and offensive opportunities were at a premium for both sides in the early going. City were having the better of play, but not creating much until a point-blank chance from Simon Becher off a Tomas Totland long throw-in that Zack Steffen did well to stop.
The ensuing play after Steffen’s save resulted in a free kick on the left flank in Eduard Lowen’s range. While everyone was lining up for the free kick, Simon Becher was jumping around, dashing back and forth, and having a bit of an exchange of ideas with Zack Steffen.
“I was just trying to get in his head a little bit,” Simon Becher admitted postgame. “He's trying to set the wall so we couldn't curve it around it. As far as I know, I can stand wherever I want. If that's in front of him, that's in front of him. Just a little bit of gamesmanship and trying to get in his head.”
After Becher’s brief shenanigans, Löwen rattled the woodwork, and Henry Kessler toe-poked a pass to Simon Becher who put the ball in the net, but the offside flag was up on the far side. Kessler had strayed just about a foot and a shin offside when the free kick was taken.
City’s new defensive structure with five defense-first players on the pitch proved incredibly tough for the visiting Rapids to break down. In fact, they couldn’t break the City defense at all in the first half, all of their attacking efforts created 0.0 expected goals, and City’s captain and keeper Roman Burki had very little to do.
City’s best scoring chance of the game came just mere minutes into the second half. A Marcel Hartel cross from the right found a leaping Simon Becher in the box, but Colorado’s Zack Steffen made a sprawling save to his right to deny Becher and St. Louis City.
New arrivals Conrad Wallem and Alfredo Morales made their City debuts as subs in the second half as Olof Mellberg rotated some fresh legs on the field in the second half.
“[Alfredo Morales] did well in the preseason,” said Olof Mellberg. “He has not had that much training, and a long off-season. He still needs to work on his fitness. So, I don't think he's ready for so much more than he did today. But we'll build on that performance, and he's good on the ball. He brings calmness in possession.”
Morales came on for Eduard Löwen in the 69th minute, but it wasn’t a matter of injury or Löwen doing a poor job on the field.
“I thought Edu [Löwen] did really well, as well. He worked extremely hard. He got a bit tired, but you know, that's what we want. We want everyone to give their all, and if they get a little bit tired after 60 or 70, we change.”
City’s offense consisted of midfielders and wingbacks linking up down the flanks to swing in crosses toward Joao Klauss and Simon Becher. City pressed and probed, and created a few half-chances in the second half, but didn’t really put Zack Steffen’s goal in any danger.
A 90th minute corner kick got the cold crowd at Energizer Park up and, well, energized one last time in the evening, but Klauss’s header on goal was straight at Steffen. That was the story of City’s night in attack on Saturday, chances were created, but the finishing quality wasn’t there to beat Zack Steffen on the night.
Colorado’s Djordje Mihailovic swung in a half-cross/half-shot in stoppage time that missed Roman Burki’s goal by about a yard, but City’s Swiss shot stopper would likely claim that he would have made the save if the shot was on target. That was likely Colorado’s best chance of the evening, on a night where they had zero shots on target.
“Can't do too much better than letting up zero shots on goal,” said City center back Henry Kessler postgame. “Really, really solid. I think Kyle [Hiebert] had a really good game. I think Josh [Yaro] had a really good game. Those guys were really solid. Our wing backs helped out too. [Tomas Totland] was really good. Jannes [Horn] too. And the guys that came on made an impact, too. So, I think, you know, just individually great performances and then I think the shifting in the back line was really good at covering for each other at all moments.”
The final whistle blew after 94 minutes of action, and neither team could find the back of the net. Goalless draws are rare for St. Louis City, just the fifth in the club’s history, but a sign of a steadier defensive backline than City has seen in years prior.
“Overall, it's normally a game we win,” Olof Mellberg declared, as he took a look at his stats sheet. “I think we dominated most of the game. We have the stats here, it was 18-2 shots and limited them to, yeah, zero chances, basically. There were a couple of dangerous situations in the box where we defended well but apart from that, they didn't have any chances.
“We created enough to score at least two or three goals. A little bit unlucky with the offside there on [Henry Kessler], and we had three, four, great chances to score. Obviously, a game we should have won. But the performance was good.”
While City couldn’t capitalize, they held a possession advantage, something that previous iterations of St. Louis City rarely ever did. A more measured City approach, in combination with five defenders at the back, gave players a comfort on the ball not seen from this team to date.
“With the back five, I feel like we have a good, I would say, grounding,” said City veteran Akil Watts.”It felt like everyone was comfortable on the ball, and we can keep it. I'd rather have the ball than not have it.”
City now head west for two straight road games over the next two weeks. They’ll open Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego for MLS action when they visit the league’s latest expansion team, San Diego FC next Saturday, March 1. Then a big game against LA Galaxy the following week in MLS’s new Sunday Night Soccer time slot.
“Really tough games are coming up,” said Olof Mellberg. “We need to improve in all areas. Even though it was a really solid defensive performance, we can improve there, as well. I was happy with the end, with the last 15, 20 minutes, when we showed even more confidence in our buildup with a little bit more movement, center backs being confident in taking the ball forward.
We just need to continue to build on our confidence. But it will be tough.”
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