ST LOUIS - St. Louis City SC is only two years separated from their 2023 MLS debut. On Saturday, they’ll make a trip to San Diego as the newest MLS franchise, San Diego FC, opens their home stadium.
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Just like St. Louis City, San Diego started their life in MLS with a big win on the road. Their 2-0 win against the defending MLS Cup Champion LA Galaxy last weekend put the rest of the league on notice.
Now the Southern California outfit will open their home field, Snapdragon Stadium, for MLS service. Well over 30,000 fans are expected Saturday night in San Diego.
Roman Burki remembers how special that night was in St. Louis.
“It’s something special for the whole team,” said Burki on Thursday before the City team hopped on a plane for San Diego. “Going into the new locker room at a new stadium, everything’s new and [they’re] just excited to be here. Then you’re welcomed by such a crowd, that’s obviously amazing. There’s nothing better as a player.”
“We expect the same in San Diego [compared to City’s opener in 2023], maybe the weather will be a little bit better… But we’re not going there to shake hands and congratulate them. We want three points.”
Getting three points on the road was quite a struggle for St. Louis City in 2024. Both Olof Mellberg and team captain Roman Burki stressed that this is a new year, a new team, and that they shouldn’t compare themselves to the City of old.
“I don’t think we should compare too much with the losses [on the road last season],” said Mellberg. “We’ve worked really hard this week with a good game plan for Saturday’s game and I feel confident in that. I think that’s what the players need, to feel that we have a good game plan.”
Roman Burki thought the team made too much of a fuss about their away record last season.
“Last year we made too much of a deal, too big of a deal of playing away,” admitted Burki. “Like ‘Oh, it’s an away game? It’s always hard’, I mean you go on the same field. There’s a stadium with people inside. You just have to play a different opponent.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s away or at home, I expect to win to be honest. It’s a soccer game. Obviously we have to travel, but I think we’re professional enough to push those things away and just focus on the game, and be able to win away games.”
Winning this away game won’t be easy against a San Diego FC squad with plenty of firepower.
While Hirving “Chucky” Lozano and Luca de la Torre might have been San Diego’s headline-grabbing acquisitions as the team rounded into form, it was their other Designated Player, Anders Dreyer, who stole the headlines on Matchday 1.
Dreyer netted both goals for the Chrome and Azul in their aforementioned victory over the LA Galaxy. Chucky Lozano and Tomas Angel provided assists on Dreyer’s goals.
Olof Mellberg and St. Louis City will look to take the positives from Matchday 1 into Saturday night’s contest.
“You want to bring in the things that were working from the first game, but it’s a new game now,” Olof Mellberg explained. “New opponent, a new game plan, So I don’t necessarily feel that just because we had a good game, I have to keep the same [starting] eleven.”
“We have a quite big squad, we have players coming back from injuries and not many on the injury list either. So we have quite a few choices on various positions, I haven’t decided yet for a [starting] eleven, and there is good competition for a starting place. You can see that in training as well, we’ve had a good week in training.”
Regarding that small injury list, it was revealed last week that center back Joakim Nilsson and winger Rasmus Alm would miss time due to injuries suffered late in preseason.
Rasmus Alm will now miss 3-4 weeks, and be reevaluated after that time period, said Olof Mellberg on Tuesday this week. Alm missed considerable time between a sports hernia and a knee sprain last season.
Joakim Nilsson’s injury isn’t as serious, but he won’t be in the squad for a second week running. Nilsson’s injury hasn’t been specified, ruled as a “knock” that occurred in St. Louis City’s closed-door scrimmage with the San Jose Earthquakes.
Mellberg said Nilsson had a scan on Monday “that looked really good”, so the team is optimistic he won’t miss too much time.
Nilsson hasn’t featured in competitive action, but the center backs who did, Henry Kessler, Josh Yaro, and Kyle Hiebert, showed the benefits of learning under a head coach who played the center back role at the highest levels of the sport.
“There are a lot of things [to teach],” explained Mellberg. “How you’re working 1-v-1, how you’re handling different profiles of strikers, how you work together with your teammates. I will be working on the back line shifting, and taking responsibility for deep runs (by attacking opposition players), but still being able to be aggressive and win balls from the opponents.
Not just purely defensive, some of Mellberg’s teachings have led to City’s backline becoming far more crucial in how the team plays on the offensive side, starting attacks by dribbling into space, and distributing the ball out from the back line.
“Our build-up is a bit different from last year,” said Mellberg. “I think it is improving all the time… It’s important that [the center backs] are confident taking the ball forward when they can. Driving the ball forward, it depends on where they are in the buildup, and their quality. We’re trying to adjust [the build-up] depending on the quality of the individual.”
St. Louis City looks to build on a solid performance on Matchday #1 to earn points away from Energizer Park on Saturday night.
Kickoff is set for just after 9:30 p.m. central time, with the game streaming on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. Local radio broadcasts are available on KYKY Y98.1 FM in English and KXOK 102.9 FM in Spanish.
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